UPDATE II: The city council deferred this contract tonight to the new council. The reason? None of them had any information on the project, not even the council chair. They will have an informational next Tuesday about what it all entails.
UPDATE: Looks like they are replacing EVERYTHING. I was unaware there was anything wrong or broken with the current equipment. (DOC: Carnegie-VID-Agree) I highly suggest they get a warranty this time around 🙂
I failed to post the city council agenda over the weekend (Meeting is Wednesday night) because I didn’t find anything to controversial, except the above contract in the consent agenda.
This ‘final hour’ award is interesting for a number of reasons. First off, I don’ recall ever hearing an open discussion about this by the council or even a presentation from AVI. In fact the councilors I have spoken with have no idea what this is and why it is needed. The equipment is pretty new at Carnegie. Secondly the price tag is questionable considering this is an upgrade and not a whole new system being put in. Also, the Minnehaha County Commission chambers just got a new system put in, it’s cost? $40,000.
Also consider that the major issue with the city broadcasting meetings isn’t the equipment, it’s the problems with SIRE that we have said all along seem to be self-inflicted by our IT department to make government less transparent. This has been a problem even before Mike took office and has only gotten worse.
Some are speculating if the administration is doing some last minute favors before leaving.
It’s sad when an expensive state of the art studio with 5 figure upgrades is no better than one private party with a second hand $100 camcorder. There’s better video on blogs than the city site. Historic record keeping is what media and Southdacola has. Why do we need city government? They’re of no service. They mismanage a 350 million budget. They need a contractor to mow when there’s 70+ Caucasian employees at the Parks Department. City golf courses are managed by a Nebraska company. We tried a businessman mayor and he’s forcing us out of business.