Tag! You're IT!

Tonight, Trenton's governing body will, yet again, vote on a contract for IT Consulting services. It has become every bit as hot button an issue this year as it was five years ago under the Mack administration.

There have been a few articles in the local press, some good blogging by Kevin Moriarty, plus some extended commentary on social media. Here are three points that we think must be kept in mind when discussing this situation and deciding the best direction from here.

1) The shortcomings of the City of Trenton's IT system should not be blamed solely (if at all) on the current consultant, Associated Data Processing. ADPC is a vendor hired to support the city's various departments and their IT needs.

Over the years, many have commented on how the city has lagged in effectively using technology to increase the efficacy of its many operations. We've begged for more modern, up to date, services.

Is it the fault of the vendor supporting the existing systems that the city has not drafted a plan to improve the technology used or committed the resources necessary to execute a plan (if there was one)? NO!

If you know your car needs new tires, a transmission rebuild and a tune up but don't direct your mechanic to do the work and authorize the cost of same, is it the mechanic's fault that you can't get up to speed on Rte 1? NO!

If you talk about wanting to lose weight, quit smoking and get in shape with your personal physician but don't follow her suggestions on how to achieve those goals, is it her fault? NO!

Why are so many so quick to blame ADPC for the shortcomings of the Trenton's IT infrastructure?

Just read the documents included with the RFP and you'll see that in the past five years there has been few substantive discussions with either the past or current administrations about upgrading the city's IT system. Contained within in that RFP is an assessment report done, at the City's request, by the (then) current contractor, ADPC. Or we should say, a part of the report is included.

The RFP only contained 36 pages, about half, of the full assessment report. The parts that were omitted were the recommendations, evaluations of ADPCs performance, and lists of aborted or stalled projects, etc. The full report can be found here.



One example...stretching back to the Palmer administration, the city has been "ready" to implement a new computer based system for issuing parking permits and passes. This started when the current Mayor was the Director of Public Works (under whose supervision falls the Division of Transportation) and has been talked about through the Mack years and into the present.The city has yet to commit the resources (funding) to get this system up and running. That is hardly the fault of ADPC.

Another example, the city has failed to update and maintain its GIS system, rendering it somewhat less than useful.

In the full IT Assessment report, various departments rated ADPC's performance. We'll let the document speak for itself here.

2) The RFP process has, by all accounts, been seriously flawed. Flawed to the point where it certainly appears, at least superficially, that it was done in an attempt to manipulate the outcome. Let's start with the simple fact that the city's purchasing agent is not certified (nor does she have to be, by state statute, but she hasn't been able to pass the test). So how credible is the bidding process for anything when it is overseen by someone who cannot meet the requirements for certification set by the state?

With regards to the IT contract, the members of the scoring committee are somewhat suspect. Are they qualified to evaluate IT matters? Are they free of conflicts of interest and totally objective? Was the hired "professional" really able to evaluate a dozen responses from bidders in only the two hours he was paid for?

The mere fact that the administration only published part of the IT Assessment report, leaving out the solid recommendations and lack of commitment to upgrades and improvements is a pretty good indication to us that they were trying to push their shortcomings (and those of their predecessors) off on someone else.



3) It is very doubtful that FCC Consulting is truly the best firm out of all the companies that responded to the RFP. A simple review of the websites of all the companies shows a notable lack of professionalism in FCC's site when compared to the competitors. All of the other firms show at least a small staff and multi-person leadership. FCC's is obviously a one person show at the moment, run out of the principal's rented home. Not very confidence instilling.

What happens if FCC gets the contract? How quickly can he staff up to meet the demands of the work? Can he recruit people with the right skills and experience to serve what will surely be FCC's biggest client?

Does FCC have the financial wherewithal to manage this contract? Doubtful.

Mr. Carothers' business history is rather checkered. There are two judgments from 2008 and 2009 totaling almost $70,000 that are listed on the state judiciary website as still being open. Why hasn't he been able to pay these off?

The business registration for the various LLC's Mr. Carothers has created have all been suspended at one time or another for failure to file annual reports. Filing is a simple process, done online. And if your company goes out of business, you are supposed to file that as well.

Then there is Mr. Carother's personal history of bankruptcy and such. Again, not a lot to build confidence in his ability to successfully perform the important work that the city so badly needs.

So, what to do?

It is possible that there is a better company out there that can help Trenton move ahead in the IT game. There is really no way of knowing until the administration maps out a plan, on its own or with the help of a consultant, as to what it wants to achieve, when it wants to achieve it by and earmarking the funds and human resources to get it done.

For the long term, a plan must be drawn up and a timetable for implementation adopted.

In the short term, the city needs a capable IT consultant. Why not keep ADPC at least through the process of developing a strategy for moving ahead? And if not ADPC, then at least obtain the services of a truly experienced, financially stable vendor to handle the current needs.

State of the City

We’ve been tempted to draft a lengthy dissection of Mayor Mack’s State of the City Address but hesitated. Fortunately, Dan Dodson was on it immediately and posted a thoughtful response on his blog.


Sometimes, procrastination pays off.

At tonight’s city council meeting, that pay off came. Sort of.

Resolution 11-157 was the extension of the information technology (IT) consulting contract with ADPC. This is the contract that an RFP was issued for last fall and that resulted in the controversial and faulty hiring of an unqualified vendor, Lynx Technology Partners.

ADPC, who has provided this service to the city for over 20 years, took the matter to court and prevailed.

In an order issued on March 11, Judge Feinberg determined that the RFP process would need to be rebid and that ADPC would continue under the terms of the current contract until June 30, 2011.

Tonight’s resolution was presented on the docket this way:

11-157 RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE CONTRACT WITH ASSOCIATED DATA PROCESS CONSULTANTS, INC. (ADPC), 116 VILLAGE BLVD, SUITE 200, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE CITY OF TRENTON, DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION, DIVISION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (not to exceed $319,2000 term March 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011)

According to a report posted by Bob Chilson on his blog, when the resolution came up for a vote, it failed to pass.

Councilwoman Holly-Ward asked the City Attorney, Marc McKithen, if there was any paperwork to back up the resolution. McKithen reportedly stated he didn’t have anything.

Council voted 5-2 against the resolution. The two members who voted in favor of the resolution, Council President Muschal and Councilwoman Caldwell-Wilson, were the only two to vote against awarding the IT contract to Lynx technologies in the first place. It is pretty obvious that they are paying attention.

It is hard to say what is more disappointing in this matter…the complete lack of understanding on the part of five city council members as to what the judge ordered or McKithen’s apparent refusal to offer a proper and thorough explanation of the matter so they could vote intelligently.

At best, we have a situation where the ignorance and incompetence of a majority on our governing body is compounded by the willful contempt demonstrated by the city attorney and the rest of the Mack administration.

That, friends, is the real state of the city. It is not "well."

The price of ignorance

Merriam-Webster’s definition of IGNORANCE

The state or fact of being ignorant: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness

If there was any doubt about the complete inability of our Mayor to comprehend the depths of his inept management of the city, they have long been buried under the blizzard of catastrophes that have befallen Trenton.

From day one, the choices Mayor Tony F. Mack have made as the city’s chief executive officer have lead from blunder to blunder. Starting with the hiring of friends and supporters at a time when the city was facing a critical fund shortage and pending layoffs of experienced and skilled employees; moving through appointments of legally tainted individuals to his cabinet; the indictment of his half-brother on charges of using city resources to profit from a side business of doing plumbing repairs; and now the pending legal action against the Mack administration for failing to follow state public contracting laws (let alone common sense). The Mack administration has demonstrated conclusively that it is overflowing with ignorance. And arrogance.

When advised by Council President Muschal and Councilwoman Caldwell-Wilson of reported problems with employees in the Trenton Water Utility, the Mayor reportedly shrugged it off. The subsequent arrest and indictment of water works employees demonstrated that Mayor Mack doesn’t get it.

The City’s Housing and Economic Development Department prepared an error-filled and faulty ordinance for Council that would have sold city-owned properties to a developer for $1 each. The developer, it turns out, had given generously to the Mack campaign; so generously, in fact, as to have exceeded the limits for campaign contributions. An error like this is supposed to be discovered and corrected WITHIN 48 HOURS of the receipt of the contribution. Some seven and one half months after the contribution was received, the overage had not been returned. Only after the matter became public knowledge did Mayor Mack offer to refund part of the contribution and split the balance between the contributor and his wife in an attempt to comply with the law. (NOTE: as of this writing, there is no public record that any money has been returned to the contributor).

The fact that the Housing and Economic Development staff was decimated by layoffs and retirements played heavily into this matter. By the admission of Acting Director Henrietta Owusu, no one on her truncated staff was able to catch the fact that the majority of the properties being offered to the developer were NOT in a redevelopment area and therefore could not be sold without benefit of some sort of pubic auction. Further, the remaining properties that were in a redevelopment area were not in the redevelopment area stated in the ordinance. While she took full responsibility for the errors and omissions as acting department director, Owusu indicated it was the fact that the department was left critically short-handed by the staff reductions that created the mess.

The Mack administration apparently doesn’t grasp the value of having knowledgeable and experienced employees on hand to perform vital tasks. In fact, the administration seems to favor incompetent and inexperienced friends as witnessed by the hiring practices of the last seven months or so.

Why else would he hire unqualified individuals as Park Rangers and put them “in charge” of city hall security? Or make his campaign committee treasurer his personal secretary? Now the Mayor is reportedly thinking of making this man, the same man who cannot properly complete and file the required campaign reports with the state, the Assistant Business Administrator?

Ignorance.

Perhaps the greatest example of the Mack administration’s lack of awareness and/or knowledge is the matter of the Information Technology (IT) consulting contract. The entire process for competitive contracting as defined in the state statutes was tossed aside by Mayor Mack and his minions so that a favored but flawed vendor could get the contract.

The newly minted city attorney, whose experience with municipal law was questioned at the time of his nomination, was apparently ignorant of the process and gave little in the way of sound advice to the city council as they deliberated the matter.

The city’s long time purchasing agent had left during the RFP process and was not there to shepherd it along.

Similarly, the IT Director for the city was let go in the November layoffs. His exit left no one with a sound understanding of the city’s IT needs to effectively evaluate the proposals of the three bidders.

Just think, Trenton could have kept the IT director on instead of the two worthless, inexperienced and unqualified “grant writers” hired by the Mayor and who have yet to land any grant of any significance to the core functions of the city.

More ignorance.

Now the city is facing legal action via a complaint filed by the long-time IT consulting company who was thrown over for the new guy. It remains to see what this will cost the taxpayers in additional monies unnecessarily paid out due to the administration’s fumbles and foibles.

But let’s not turn a blind eye to the governing body’s role in the IT fiasco. City Council, or at least the five members who voted to award the contract to the vendor with the faulty proposal, must share the mantle of ignorance with the Mayor. Various members of the public tried to explain the problems with the process but the council wouldn’t listen.

Turning a deaf ear to the voices of reason is most likely going to be a costly experience.

The price of ignorance.