Saratoga News

City employees say Orlando trip was filled with training

Shaw defends decision to send staffers to Florida

By Sarah Lombardo

Saratoga city employees being trained to use the city's new computer system have recently returned from instruction seminars--in Orlando, Fla. The three-day, all-expenses-paid trips to the home of Disney World for the five staffers were part of an agreement with HTE Inc., the Orlando-based integrated software company founded in 1981 from which the city agreed to purchase its new system last year.

City finance records for January show the city has so far paid HTE Inc. $6,000 for the training classes; one staffer is scheduled to return for a second training session in late February.

The trips to Florida were not, apparently, part of the agreement when the city first purchased the system, which costs more than $250,000. According to Vice Mayor Jim Shaw, the Florida excursions became necessary months ago when HTE developed newer systems after the agreement with the city had already been approved. Then-administrative services director Thomas Fil told the City Council it would be easier and more efficient to send employees to Florida than to bring HTE trainers out to the West Coast. And, Shaw pointed out, staffers said the cost would be the same.

"City staff said they did a cost analysis and, in essence, said it was a wash," he said. Repeated calls to current interim administrative finance department director Deborah Larson to verify the analysis and other expenses were not returned.

Shaw did concede, however, that the trips to Florida appear extravagant. But he said he felt assured the city staff members who were sent took the project seriously.

"My reaction is that I think we have a pretty good employee crew at the city," he said. "And from my own work experience, when I was sent somewhere for training, I usually spent the time training."

City code enforcement officer Rebecca Spoulous, one of the employees sent to Orlando, said the training was intense. Spoulous said she spent most of the time entering city codes into the new system and learning how to use the software.

"It's a lot of stuff to do in three days. You're going the full eight hours," she said. Spoulous said, however, that at first the idea of sending employees to Florida seemed odd to her.

"I think [residents] have valid concerns," she said. "I did, too."

Community environment director James Walgren, who was also sent out of state, agreed. "I can tell you that from our standpoint, it was no vacation," he said. Walgren also said he and the other four employees will be responsible for training other employees on the new system.

City staffers said that the majority of hardware for the system at City Hall has been installed, and all that remains is the training of the staff and the implementation of the software. The computer system was approved by the council almost a year ago as part of the city's Technology Master Plan.

The plan, completed in early 1996, was designed to define the city's current and future technology needs. By the time the city approved the agreement with HTE, staffers complained of phone systems and computers crashing, information being lost and employees having to re-enter information manually because departments were not linked to each other.

The proposed computer system was often the subject of bitter debate during council elections in 1996. Opponents of Measure L, the utility-users tax, argued that if the city had money enough for a new computer system, it didn't need the tax.

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