cc The Putnam County Commission has voted to purchase nearly $500,000 worth of software for its juvenile and circuit court systems, after officials in those departments said their current equipment is out of date, unreliable and inefficient.
The purchase, which carries a price tag of $446,260, including $25,000 for contingency, first received approval in committee last week. Officials with the juvenile and circuit court systems say the software needed is extremely specialized — the county had only received a total of three bids. After a brief discussion, the commission approved the measure in a 22-1 vote.
Meanwhile, the commission deferred a decision on the appointment of an interim road supervisor. Long-time department head Billy “Red” Lamb passed away in February, and even though there is an election in August, by state statute, the commission has 120 days — or until June — to fill that position.
The commission recessed its meeting until next week in order to properly advertise the action and will hear a recommendation from the nominating committee at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 27. The agenda released for last night’s meeting had both Randy Jones, who earned the Democratic nomination during the May 4 primary, and Terry Lamb, Red’s brother and the current assistant road supervisor, recommended for the position.
The new software for the juvenile and circuit court offices will replace equipment that is 15-17 years old. Randy Porter, head of the county’s technology committee, had warned the commissioners in March that the upgrade would be coming — and it would be costly. Both he and Greg Bowman, court administrator, said the current software has become unreliable.
“Nothing pains me more than having to come here and ask (for this),” Bowman said. “There’s just so many (problems). Friday night I came back to work at 9 o’clock. I tried to get our software back up and running because we were slammed at our detention center. We got it back up and running. And I walk in (Monday) morning, and we’re down again.
“It’s just not productive,” he continued. “The juvenile software is on its last leg. The technology has surpassed what the database can do.”
The commission was presented with a couple of different options to help finance the software purchase, which County Executive Kim Blaylock said would not be cause for a property tax increase. The motion approved last night would use $98,000 leftover from the capital project fund with the remainder to be funded through a capital outlay note from the debt service fund. Officials also mentioned last week that $100,000 had already been allocated in the budget for this fiscal year.
District 7 Commissioner Joe Trobaugh recommended the county auction off some of its property to help cover the debt. And District 2 Commissioner Bob Duncan said the county could also dedicate the 2 cents allocated to the capital projects fund from the county tax rate to completely cover the leftover cost.
“There’s $100,000 in the current budget, there’s going to be approximately $98,000 left from projects that will be completed this month, so that leaves roughly $250,000,” Duncan said. “If the budget committee recommends, we can fund that $250,000 with basically the 2 cents and it’s paid for — without any long-term debt implications or anything like that. You’d basically wipe it all out in next year’s budget.”
District 4 Commissioner Andy Honeycutt was the lone no vote. District 10 Commissioner Kevin Maynard, who voted against the purchase in committee last week, abstained.
Source:-http://www.herald-citizen.com/view/full_story/7465820/article-Commission-approves-software-purchase?instance=homesecondleft
