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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-07-06 - City Commission Workshop Meeting Minutes5811 NORTHWEST 88TH AVENUE a TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33321 TELEPHONE (305) 722-5900 July 5, 1983 NOTICE OF WORKSHOP N=ING CITY COUNCIL TAMARAC, FLARIUA Please be advised of a Workshop Meeting to be held on Wednesday, July 6, 1983 at 10:30 A.M. in the West Conference Room of City Hall to receive administrative input relating to the request to upgrade the Central Processing Unit of the Data Processing System. The participants in the Meeting are Councilmen Philip Kravitz and Jack Stelzer, City Mawger Laura Stuurmans and Finance Director Steve Wood. The Public is invited to attend. Marilyn BerthoI i City Clerk CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA CITY COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE WORKSHOP MELTING ON COMPUTER UPGRADE July 6, 1983 Fape CALL TO ORDER: C/M Kravitz called the Workshop Meeting to order on 1 Wednesday, July 6, 1983, in the West Conference Room. The purpose of the meeting was to receive administrative input relating to the request to upgrade the Central Processing Unit of the Data Processing System. ROLL CALL: PRESENT: Councilman Philip B. Kravitz Councilman Jack Stelzer Laura Z. Stuurmans, City Manager Steve Wood, Finance Director ALSO PRESENT: Vice Mayor Helen Massaro Marilyn Bertholf, City Clerk Craig Turok, Data Processing Manager Jeff Chorba, Microdata Representative C/M Kravitz asked Mr. Wood if this new upgrade were approved, would there be room for unforeseen applications and Mr. Wood said this would be highly expandable. C/M Kravitz said the main concern of Council was why, after such a short period of time, it is necessary to spend $130,000 to upgrade the computer system when the auditor's survey indicated that the system would be adequate for a least 5 years. The City Manager said that although there was a study made by the auditing firm and they projected a 5 year period of usefulness of the equipment procured 2 years ago, it is because the City has been able to make advances and add onto the system at a faster pace than they believed possible. Steve Wood said that from a matter of economics, it would not be wise to continue at this point without an upgraded system. He said the auditors probably did not anticipate that this City would progress on the computer as they have by upgrading the memory, adding more terminals and, as anticipated for this coming fiscal year, they will upgrade the disc drive. Mr. Wood explained that when this auditing survey was made, the City had no Data Processing staff on board and there was no way to determine the anticipated productivity. Mr. Chorba explained that the City of Coral Springs has 5 people on their Data Processing staff and they have not developed 1/5 of Tamarac's programs with the exact same computer. He said if they progressed at the speed of Coral Springs, it would take 5 years to reach Tamarac's present position. C/M Stelzer said he feels the expenditure of $130,000 would be an investment into a computer system that would be a helpful addition for the City. C/M Kravitz asked Steve Wood if he feels this upgrade would be sufficient for another 5 years and Mr. Wood said it would. He said 126 terminals could be hung from the Sequel and this would only be reached if the population advances beyond 60,000 people. C/M Kravitz asked if this machinery would be obsolete and Mr. Wood said this is a hi -tech field and it depends on the needs involved. He said this projected upgrade is a 32 byte processor and the present system is an 8 byte processor. lie said this machine can process information 5 to 9 times faster than the current system and he believes this would be most sufficient. C/M Kravitz asked if this machinery were available on a rental basis and Mr. Wood said no, there is no benefit for a municipal government to rent equipment as tnere is no tax advantage and the cost 7s greater. Mr. Wood said the alternative to upgrading the computer system would be a first year cost to the City of between $92,000 and $97,000 which would be the continuation of two Accounting Clerk I positions that he proposes to eliminate in the Finance Department at $32,000. He said - 1 - 7/6/83 /pm a night Data Processing Operator would have to be hired to process the utility billing system at an estimated cost of $25,000 with benefits. He said the upgrade of the disc drive, which was proposed for next year, is $30,000 and $5,000 is projected for the proposed fire inspection fee _coll_er_.tinn_sPrvir_e. Wa .said this totals $o2nnn Mnd th4 S ---- A year would be a continuation of the $32,000 for the two Accounting Clerk I positions, $25,000 for the night Data Processing Operator and $5,000 for the proposed fire inspection fee collection service and a continuation of the Fiscal Assistant to handle Developer Agreements, at a total cost of $68,0nn. C/M Kravitz asked if the new equipment were purchased, would a service contract be needed for the first or second year and what cost would be involved. Mr. Wood said there is an annual additional maintenance cost of approximately $6,400. C/M Kravitz asked if this would be a constant figure or would increase yearly and Mr. Chorba said it would not be raised more than 10% each year. C/M Stelzer asked Mr. Wood if the projected new programs (See Attachment) were installed, would the potential be absorbed and Mr. Wood said no, if all of the Police Crime Incident Reporting System and Police Data Dispatch were put in,it would probably take up all of the existing disc drive and they would have to add an additional disc drive unit. Mr. Chorba said the third unit would tnen oe at $17,0U0. mr. wood said they would have to expand at that point just 'or additiona' eisc drive for storage media because the Police Crime Incident Reporting System is so large. Mr. Chorba explained that each unit is 128 mega bytes of disc and they can be added on as needed. He said the system will go in with 257 mega bytes of disc with 1,000 mega bytes as being the expandability of the Sequel system, therefore, there should be no need to expand. C/M Kravitz asked how much money the City would be required to spend for this upgraded equipment and Mr. Wood said he is asking that Council authorize an expenditure of up to $130,000 coming from the Capital Reserve Fund or the Federal Revenue Sharing Fund. C/M Kravitz questioned the possibility of obtaining a grant from the State for Data Processing purposes and Mr. Wood said he is not aware of any grant money available. V/M Massaro said she understands the value of departmental computer information but questioned the value of all the proposed applications Tape in daily use. C/M Stelzer questioned why the Data Processing was 2 allocated to all of the various departments instead of directly to the Data Processing Department and Mr. Wood said there will be a budget presented after the General Fund which will be the Central Services D.P. Mr. flood said the 15 Proposed Applications listed were suggested by other departments as useful and he reviewed the Developers Agreements that are already , on the computer as billing of the guaranteed revenues and interest on CIACs. He said they do not have an interface of all the information that deals with developers concerning engineering, the Project Number, the Planning Department's input, etc., a data -base of information so that all departments can access one file via the computer. Mr. flood stated the Police Crime Incident Reportinq System primarily produces reports that the Police are required to file with the State of Florida and this allows them to monitor various types of crimes, burglar alarm break-ins, etc. The City Manager said it allows the monitoring of repetitive causes of vehicular accidents and the County is moving towards looking to the cities supplying them with that information. Mr. Wood said the input of information must be a cooperative effort from all departments in order to completely develop a true picture on the computer. The City Manager said the Mayor has raised three areas of concern: I. The use of terminals. She asked Craig Turok how many terminals there are in the City presently and whether the use of those terminals complicate the situation enough to change the problems existing. Mr. Turok said there are 28 terminals presently and Mr. Wood said the terminals attached to the system that are of casual use would not affect the situation at all. He said there will be terminals added in the Police Department and the City Clerk's office. - 2 - 7/6/83 /pm 2. Is "spooling" being used? Mr. Chorba said the way that Microdata is set up now there is no choice but to use spooling for input and output. 3. Whether or not there is a plan of action for uses put on an up- graded CPU: the 15 proposed applications listed are just some of those possible. The City Manager said there are a number of routine functions that would be applicable. The City Clerk said she envisions putting Council minutes on the word processor along with a number of other things and she felt the potential is limitless. She said Data Processing has just completed a program indexing the Minutes from 1963 to the present but this cannot be implemented until the CPU is upgraded. C/M Kravitz asked the City Manager to pursue the possibility of receiving grants for the Data Processing functions of the Police Department and she said she would follow this through. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 A.M. ssistant City Clerk This public document was promulgated at a cost of $ &V, $4� or $ - / per copy, to inform the general public and public officers and employees about recent opinions and considerations by the City Council of the City of Tamarac. - 3 - 7/6/E3 / pril N ATTACHMENT - Vorkshop Meeting-'7/6/83'- Data Processing System APPLICATIONS CURRENTLY RUNNING ON SYSTEM 1. .Fund Management (Financial System) Z. Utility Billing System 3. Payroll A. Purchasing 5.. Fire Dispatch and Information System 6. Wordmate (Word Processing) 7. Occupational License System 8. Time Stamp System (Letters of Credit, Model Sales Fees, $tc.) 9. Personnel System 10. Miscellaneous Accounts Receivable System A. Developers Accounta.Receivable B. General Escrow Liability 11, Property Management System PROPOSED APPLICATIONS j. 1. Police Crime Incident Reporting System 2, Police Computer Aided Dispatch System 3, Financial Spread Sheet (Easycalc) A. Inventory System (Implementation taking place on shop parts) 5. City Clerk Document Index System 6. Developers Agreement Information System (Master File Module has already been implemented) 7. Fleet Maintenance System S. Project/Time/Personnel Management System 9. Gasoline Pump Usage Control System 10. City Engineer Project Information System 11. Investment Tracking System 12. Personnel Employee Application Index System �13. City Grants Monitoring System 14. City Manager Informational Index System 15. Building Department Permit and C.O. System