Pairing government, technology gets rocky
A file photo of voters casting their ballots at School #3 on Fortesque Avenue in Oceanside. (Nov. 2, 2010) Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin
When government offices deal with technology - either buying it or applying it - watch out. The landscape is littered with fiascos.
On Long Island, we've had the Nassau crime-lab problem, voting-machine woes and property-tax assessment glitches.
Statewide, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report last May flagging the state Department of Health's efforts toward a Medicaid payment system called eMedNY. Started up six years ago, it has been "plagued with numerous problems since implementation," said DiNapoli, who found the project was 33 months late - and $166.4 million, or 47 percent, over budget.
More recently, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called creation of an automated system to streamline employee timekeeping "a disaster." The cost under his administration's watch had exceeded $600 million, nearly 10 times over budget. Fraud prosecutions are under way.
One city-based procurement expert, who declined to be identified, gave this analysis: "Every government entity thinks it is to some degree unique. So you can't just get something off the shelf and use it. Then you are customizing stuff to fit the need or the perceived need. Once that happens, the price goes up. . . . They might drift away from cost monitoring and quality control."
PARK AND CLICK: On a related note, there were unsuccessful private-sector attempts over recent years to hook up wireless Internet access Suffolk-wide in cooperation with the county. Now Dan Aug, spokesman for County Executive Steve Levy, says the county has selected a vendor via a request-for-proposals process and "expects to have the 12 county parks up and fully loaded with Wi-Fi by July 4 - six by Memorial Day, the other six by Independence Day." Estimated public cost: $50,000.
ABSENT ON 'LIFO':Long Island's senior-most state senator, Owen Johnson (R-West Babylon), was out sick and missed Albany's highest-profile vote last week - on a bill sponsored by Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) to end the "last-in-first-out" policy by which New York City teachers can be laid off only by seniority. The bill carried 33-27 but might have fallen short of the needed 32 if neither of two dissident Democrats, David Valesky (D-Oneida) and Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx), had not voted "aye." The measure is given little or no chance in the Assembly.
