Boston City councilors taking aim at computer upgrade costs

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City councilors taking aim at computer upgrade costs by David R. Guarino Friday, May 12, 2000

Enraged at revelations of a wildly over-budget upgrade of the city's computers, members of the City Council yesterday threatened to cut Menino administration efforts to further pad the project.

Councilors, already upset the mayor won't pump more money into affordable housing programs, said they might help him find the extra cash by cutting spending to the computer project.

They say the mayor's shell game with the project's financing leaves much of his $1.7 billion budget suspect and that wholesale cuts by the council aren't out of the question.

``He's saying there's not enough money (to spend more on housing), fine, we'll dig it up,'' said Councilor Maura A. Hennigan. ``Maybe we'll just have to go in and pull a little here, a little there.''

Menino's aides say cutting the computerization effort now, when it's nearly done, would be shortsighted punishment.

``We could have done a better job at keeping the councilors informed on the project but I think the councilors are supportive of it,'' said Edward J. Collins, the city's chief financial officer. ``I don't think it'll come to that.''

Unveiled in 1998, the computer upgrade, known as BAIS, was designed to pull together all of the city's personnel, payroll and accounting systems into one system.

The Herald reported yesterday that the project is now expected to cost about $44 million, more than $20 million over its original budget.

The overruns, attributed to costly equipment, training and technical support, include a bid to spend $9 million on the project next year - well after it is fully implemented.

In a budget hearing focused on the project yesterday, Councilor Stephen J. Murphy called it ``unacceptable'' that the council didn't know of the overruns. He said councilors are under a lot of pressure to add to Menino's $26 million commitment on housing and that the BAIS project might be the place to start.

``There's $8.8 million there, why don't we just take that?'' Murphy asked.

In reality, the council can only cut from the budget - it cannot force Menino to spend the cash elsewhere.

And other councilors said the threats make for nice saber-rattling but would only hurt the city.

``The money needs to be spent on this thing, you can't just not spend the money,'' said Councilor Michael P. Ross. ``We need to be accurate in our estimates in what we're spending and clearly this was not. But you can't pull the plug on this project no matter how big the problem.''

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/comp05122000.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 13, 2000


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