It could take five years before the county upgrades its financial and human resources management system and cost more than $5 million through 2024 to maintain the system broadly criticized by the 2018-19 Monterey County Civil Grand Jury.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved a five-year extension of a software maintenance agreement with CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc. worth more than $5 million through June 30, 2024.
Under questioning by Supervisor Mary Adams about the expense of the contract extension and potential options, county Information Technology director Eric Chatham said the agreement is “fairly normal in the market.”
At the same time, Chatham told the board he is in the midst of a five-year plan for the next upgrade with release of a request for proposals planned for 2021-22, and the upgrade in place by 2023-24.
The report comes in the wake of the civil grand jury’s release of a report blasting the county’s handling of its financial and HR system due to poor management and inadequate oversight.
The 104-page report noted the county spent more than $40 million over a dozen years on upgrading the system, once in 2009-10 and again in 2018, and recommended the county correct its mistakes before going ahead with another system upgrade it suggested would be needed within the next four years. The grand jury recommended the county issue a request for proposal for a system upgrade by next year.
The grand jury also noted that part of the county’s problem with previous system upgrades was that they took so long, most recently due to a lack of proper documentation regarding payroll changes made to accommodate the county’s myriad special pay practices without notifying CGI. As a result, the systems were both outdated even before they were implemented and their software was not fully supported by CGI within just a few years of their use.
According to the grand jury, CGI only supports the current and two previous versions of its system software, which is typically updated every two to three years.
If the county takes five more years to upgrade the system, its current system software installed last year when it was already five years old might no longer be supported by CGI, which has since issued two updates and could be expected to issue another version by 2021 or 2022.
The grand jury suggested the lack of support for the system helped create an urgency to pursue an upgrade under “crisis mode,” without strategic planning.
Also Tuesday morning, the board approved under consent a revision to the county’s agreement with the city of Salinas governing growth in the Greater Salinas Area aimed at clearing the way for proposed new development in the Boronda and Sala Road areas, and approved the hiring of a new county library director Hillary Theyer and new county Water Resources Agency general manager Brent Buche.
The board also adopted resolutions recognizing June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Plus Pride Month, as well as retiring 48-year Sheriff’s Investigative Sgt. Terry Kaiser, West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame 2019 inductee Doug McCoun, and firefighters and other emergency responders who helped out with last year’s devastating Camp Fire in Butte County under mutual aid.
June 18, 2019
Monterey Herald
By Jim Johnson
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