Thursday, April 10, 2008

NHR on financial software

The NHRs Luther Turmelle wrote this article on the town's financial software.

Tim White

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did we go with the cheapest system the first time? No client using the system in CT. What where they thinking? It's water over the dam. A costly choice. Make sure you talk to other users of the system. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

What goes? Another blunder? Doesn't anyone know how to write a contract to protect the town?

We have a a town attorney, Matt Hall the super lawyer and Elizabeth Esty the wana-be-lawyer and we have to hire another lawyer to get money back from Harris?

Do we have a problem with not laying out the exact functionality we expect in a software application and then making that part of the contract? It seems that Harris didn't know somethings that we expected the software to perform and I hope this doesn't happen again.

It looks like this was a very expensive project $80,000 to Harris, $293,000 for the Munis software, an unknown amount to Hubner and then an annual $40,000 for maintenance?

Isn't anyone responsible?

Applause for Jim Sima.

Anonymous said...

Could we use a payroll service? What is the cost?

Anonymous said...

We can not use a payroll service he in Cheshire. That would make to much sense, if we did that we would save money and Dems would be looked at as being conservatives.

I also think Jim Sima should hire a production company to do a mini-series on his life as a poor Cheshire Republican with a brain!

Anonymous said...

In todays CH it said that the TC and the town leaders all signed a confidentiality agreement, so they can't talk about it the payoff to Harris.
Instead they appropriate another $153,500 to spend and we don't know who is to blame and how much it actually cost us to get out of it.
I wish I had a job like that. I tell my boss that the item he just paid $280,000 for isn't really working the way I want so lets get another one and payoff the software company. I would be fired so fast. Not in Cheshire though, we don't hold anyone accountable.
Guess what? The next election we will hold people responsible.

Anonymous said...

If I added all the numbers correctly this system will costs us over $400,000. I'm I wrong? If not that a lot of $$$$$$.

Anonymous said...

Tim,
This is a little off the subject but I offer it up to the TM, CTC and the tax payers of Cheshire. This is what I do and I keep a eye on it daily in case changes need to be made;

First: Consolidate all our bond debt by borrowing at the current LIBOR rate of 2.71%

Second: Invest the millions of surplus dollars in National municipal Bond Triple-A Rated, Tax-Exempt Insured Revenue Bonds at a current rate of 7.01%

I use this plan currently and I make a 4.29% tax free yield on other peoples money. Now I know there is some fluctuations in rates, usually every 3 months. I watch the rates daily and make adjustments when necessary.

With $66,500,000.00 in bond dept and God only knows how many millions in surplus and other funds this plan could produce millions of tax exempt dollars for the town annually.

Just a thought form this grease monkey from the Bronx,
Mike Rocci

P.S. Health & Hypertension Fund? Why don't we look into insurance policies that would offer more benefits for town employees and cost a fraction of what we pay into this fund every year?

Anonymous said...

The Town Manager and Supt of Schools does not want anyone to question our medical benefits plans. One reason is the two are combined so the Town side gets a lower premium for the police due to heart and hypertension. The data shows that there could very well be an overall savings if the BOE and Town were split out on different medical plans, but the Town Manager does not allow this happen. There are plans out there but any attempt to bring them to the attention of the Town Manager and Supt have been crushed.