The August 12, 2008 PMS discussion and vote
Based on the comments here, it's obvious that many of you are as annoyed as I am about the Town's $50,000 PMS and the related roadwork. So if you've got 43 minutes of free time today, I thought you may want to take a trip down memory lane and listen to the reasons given in support of wasting spending nearly $50,000 on another consultant and more unnecessary software. Keep in mind that August 12, 2008 was after most people already knew we were in a recession:
Having watched the video, I'm reminded of how important it was to get a uniform, snapshot-in-time of our roads! If we didn't do that, then the road conditions may change... and then the software may not be able to tell us which roads need to be fixed.
52 days to go... anyone care to write an LTTE about the $1,000,000 road request and $50,000 PMS?
Tim White
8 comments:
At 12:40 in on this video the TM tells us that this program will "allow the council to rank the roads in order of importance".
On paper, this software may sound good, but it is obvious that we don't have the experts to use it to benefit the town...I keep hearing from those in favor that they will use this software to rank the roads...but they aren't.
The TM states that it will be put in a format that can be published on the town's web site....did he mean that someone would scan the report and we would have to look at it sideways to read it? Someone sure sold them a bill of goods.
Was this software used to determine the importance of what roads were paved this year? How? Were some of those roads done this year just crack sealed or were they all completely paved?
Tim, as a council member, the TM said that you and the other members will determine the importance...is that your job?
This software was a total waste of money and if I heard them right, it will continue to cost us an additional $27,000 every 3 years to update, yet the TM tells us the road conditions can change tin 5 months, so they can't say what roads need to be done first.
Esty thought it would be a "bargain"...how?
With "bargains" like this that she is now voting for in Hartford, it is only a ,atter of time before the state goes bankrupt.
I wish Ruocco & Slocum had the sense to vote against this...it made no sense from the start.
Tim, as a council member, the TM said that you and the other members will determine the importance...is that your job?
Ummm... well, as one resident was telling me just tonight... by following the local government, he concluded that the job of the Council is to do as the TM directs them... haha... I could barely stop laughing. I then told him how I refer to the Council as little more than a Rubber Stamp. He agreed... and by the way... he never looks at my blog. He just read the papers and watches some meetings on TV.
What really gets me about this video though is how several people argue that the consultant was necessary because we needed to take the pretty pictures at a "moment in time." And WTH matter did that make when we now "know" that roads change "dramatically" during the winter.
The whole thing was a bill of goods designed to "deny, defer, delay" the corrective actions that need to be take with the Town's senior management.
I really hope people start writing LTTEs. The situation is really, really bad. Just today I had a lawyer explaining to me how the Town is setting itself for lawsuits by its inaction.
"..The whole thing was a bill of goods designed to "deny, defer, delay" the corrective actions that need to be take with the Town's senior management. ..."
Watch out, you seem to be strongly suggesting that those at the heart of this issue really know what they are doing and they are doing things which should not be done. Many times in this type of situation when it is fully investigated and well understood what normally comes out is that those who appeared to be manipulating the system were not really skilled enough or smart enough to do much of anything other than go along for the ride. The question becomes, who was driving, or was this a case of a runaway vehicle?
Our council majority goes along for a ride on many things. Look at the ridiculous teachers contract, the pool, the land giveaways, the imaginary north end commercial development etc. Add to that some of what passes for work products by DPW and the TM and it becomes clear that this software package was not going to solve a problem.
After having tried to read the report on town roads on the town web site I was reminded of something I learned long ago about computer programs. Possibly it is a lesson which is in need or re-learning by some.
That lesson goes something like this - - - garbage in equals garbage out.
How come NO ONE has brought up Knob Hill and the oil truck collapsing through the pavement; what could/should the PMS SW have told us about this. When a truck caves in the road like this, that indicates a VERY serious problem of undermining that exist with this road....
"When a truck caves in the road like this, that indicates a VERY serious problem of undermining that exist with this road..."
As the representative from the PW Dept told Tim about the pot hole on Brentwood drive, there is no way this software could tell the underlying issues of a rosd. Brentwood was just paved at the time and a pot hole developed.
The PMS said that Nob Hill just needed milling and overlay.
Maybe we can get a software that will tell us where the roads will start collapsing.
RE: Knob Hill road collapse
Points out the very severe limits of PMS; there are several roads in town that have an 'undermining' condition--watch, there will be more road collapses as time goes on...
WONDER HOW MUCH WE PAID TO FIX THE OIL TRUCK!!!
I had heard between the tow, repairs, and down time, the town is in the range of $10,000
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