Mike Bloomberg’s obsessional love for technology is bankrupting NYC. Some would even debate costing lives with the FDNY dispatch system, a multi-billion dollar flawed system and “CityTime” - a state of the art Orwellian time clock on it’s way to being a billion dollar scam unless we can get the State Attorney General’s Office, the DA, John Liu, some higher power or 60 Minutes to investigate SAIC and consultants that oversee’s CityTime. There are way too many “consultants” earning staggering salaries, some with possible red flags for conflicts of interest even though as we know the Conflict of Interest Board rarely finds anything a conflict of interest.
Something must be done to prevent the renewal of CityTime aka “the tax payer’s Titanic” this September, 2010. Read my work which is hugely dependent on Ali Winston’s investigative work on SAIC which ties SAIC to Federal scandals, all the more reason why we need nation wide attention focused here on CityTime.
I include Juan Gonzalez’s superb work as well because he has been tenaciously reporting on this disaster for the people of NY, that is, unless you are a consultant for CityTime, a true money pit black hole and in the midst of this recession that might become a depression, all the reason the mayor needs to pull the plug on CityTime now.
In fact can we get the tax payers a refund?
King mayor, Mike Bloomberg, the little emperor that denied us a referendum, the nanny mayor, wants union workers comings and goings tracked starting with swiping in with your hand print. Of course Unions are resisting this and Local 375 has taken this issue to court breaking new ground. The local Supreme court has rejected Local 375’s request for an injunction to stop palm-screening and the union is appealing the courts decision. http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/3513/a-show-of-hands as pointed out in Ali Winston’s piece, March 3, 2008.
Personally I think it is a scam and a sham. These supposed state of the art hand scanners look like throw aways from a factory sale from the 1950’s made-over with one goal and that is too make the rich companies and their special consultants even richer.
Remember Mike Bloomberg’s real goal was to be President of The United States of America? Since he realized he couldn’t win he made up his mind he was going to buy himself a third term and did with the most expensive and humiliating win.
Let’s stick with “expensive” and “humiliating” to describe this techno-obsessed mayor’s bad choice to thrust “CityTime”, a company run by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC, San Francisco based) on New Yorker’s like a third term we didn’t want. His wild spending of his own personal fortune or in this case the tax payers money is making a small group of people very, very rich.
To give you just one example of this technological nightmare and flim flam rip-off to the tax payers let me quote Joan Gonzalez from his powerful piece written December 4th, 2009
A private consultant assigned to CityTime - the high-tech computerized payroll system that tracks the hours of city employees - billed taxpayers $47,250 for his services last June.
And that was for just one month's work.
For the entire year, consultant Mitchell Goldstein of Spherion Corp. is on track to charge $490,000, payroll records show.
Three of Goldstein's fellow project managers on the CityTime contract, Srinivas Talasila, Mark Mazer, and Jacques Lucian, will each get more than $400,000 from the city.
The top 11 consultants Spherion has supplied to the city are billing an average of $307,000 for this year, and are expected to do so until 2012, the records show.
Welcome to one of the truly astounding consultant boondoggles in New York history.
There is also a staggering piece on this topic from Ali Winston in City Limits, “A show of hands; City Workers resist tracking” which I have been referring to as well. I will directly quote her because again I think of Mike Bloomberg and his eye on the White House when believe it or not Ali Winston takes you to the Pentagon where SAIC had big time problems as well SAIC staffers pleading guilty to EPA superfund sites.
Let’s rewind
to the staggering costs Bloomberg’s techo-obsession and his control freak desires have cost people . This is from Ali Winston’s article “The concerns, however, aren't confined to privacy issues. CityTime critics like State Assemblyman Alan Maisel (D-59th District, Brooklyn) are worried about the cost of the entire program, which also includes developing a computer network for data transfers. "I have a hard time understanding it," Maisel says. "There is so much money available for the Mayor's gadgets." The CityTime budget from 1999 to date outstrips this year's proposed budget cuts of $324 million and $95 million for the Department of Education and the NYPD, respectively.
Besides the size of the CityTime budget, there are questions about the companies who've been contracted under it. Science Applications International Corporation, a San Diego-based consulting firm founded in 1969, is the main contractor for CityTime, under a deal currently worth $348 million (up from the original contract value of $68 million). The company is responsible for research and development for the biometric readers, as well as implementation of the scanners and accompanying network. SAIC is a major government contractor, ranking among the top 10 federal vendors for at least the past four years and raking in $4.4 billion in contractors with the U.S. government in 2007 alone.
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But SAIC has also had high-profile problems over the years. In the early 1990s, the company and six of its employees pleaded guilty to making false statements in their handling of work at EPA Superfund sites.
In 2004, the Pentagon's inspector general faulted SAIC's performance on a contract to rebuild the Iraqi media. The following year, the FBI blamed SAIC for botching the development of the bureau's new "Trilogy" information management system (although the Justice Department inspector general said the FBI deserved much of the blame). And the company was still wrangling into 2007 with the Greek government over whether SAIC deserved full payment for a security system it developed for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
According to Ali Winston’s piece there is another big fat conflict of interest and this get rich billing the tax payers a fortune which of course the famous “Conflict of Interest Board” ruled not a conflict of interest for OPA chief Joel Bondy to launch his own consultancy and work as a subtractor for Spherion on City Time from 2002-2004.
Hey, why don’t we all do that? So what is not the conflict of interest? . Oh, it is that Joel Bondy is the Executive Director of the office of Payroll Administration and so he could also be a consultant although Ali Winston points out it is Bondy’s work is never mentioned on the OPA website. http://www.nyc.gov:80/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.047d873163b300bc6c4451f401c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=nyc_photo_slide&catID=1194&ndi=8&cc=unused1924&rc=1194&doc_name=%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2Fadmin_officials%2Fadmin_officials_2.html You can see Joel Bondy’s photo on NYC gov website. It gets worse. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/01/13/2010-01-13_payroll_guy_cashed_in_extech_boss_padded_250g_city_salary_by_lobbying_mike_for_c.html
Sal Salamone, a former City Hall Technology chief, recieved millions of dollars from the city over the past decade as a private consultant according to Juan Gonzalez’s investigative work. Salamone reported directly to Joel Bondy so you know what I am confused...Did Bondy have two jobs at once and Salamone collects a NY pension and a fortune as a consultant. Nice work if you can get it.
In this piece by Gonzalez, the mayor admits City Time is a disaster and guess who’s name comes up....Joel Bondy but not as a city employee but as OPA Director one of many firms, entities and individuals the city pays a fortune to for consultants. Talk about too many chefs breaking the bank....
Ali Winston’s piece and Juan Gonzalez’s series of investigative reports are a must reads to learn more about the financial quick sand or black hole , the nanny mayor, control freak, Mike Bloomberg’s obsession with technology is costing the tax payers. We are heading towards the billion dollar mark -- fortune to do almost nothing except make some pals with White House connections or just plain greedy ambitions very rich.
The original idea was to save the City money but it would take maybe a 100 years to do that if the city doesn’t go completely bankrupt first and soon at the rate we are going.
Bloomberg treats tax payer money like the 110 million he spent to win or steal a third term...free and easy with what I call sub-zero trickle down...meaning where did all that money go....just to a privileged circle of deep pockets like the CityTime tax money guzzler.
Juan Gonzalez writes, “... the city is paying some 230 consultants an average salary of $400,000 a year for a computer project 7 years behind schedule and vastly over budget.” http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/26/2010-03-26_city_pours_722m_down_consulting_contracts_black_hole.html
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced he is running for Governor and his choice for a running mate, Robert Duffy signals Cuomo will be tough on unions but NYC needs him or someone in his office to be tough and investigate this CityTime, SAIC nightmare and all the consultants involved.
I spoke to some union workers and they told me you may have a small percentage of people that might not be ethical but this billion dollar disaster was not the answer. It is a catastrophe to tax payers especially now.
As I understood it, CityTime actually docks workers, so if they sign in at 9:05, you don’t get credit until 9:15 and if you sign out at 5:10 it will round off in the city’s favor so you are losing a half hour and you can sign in at your desk but it means turning on your computer, putting in you password and by the time you actually get to CityTime you have lost minutes. I was also told if you sign in the first time wearing a ring and you don’t wear the ring it doesn’t work. A union worker told me CityTime is computer smart and computer stupid.
How degrading it is and it makes me think of that TV show on Sunday Nights on Channel 2 where the boss has to go undercover and deal with low tier work and I have seen bosses cry. Mike wouldn’t shed a tear but he wouldn’t tolerate having to sign in CityTime. He doesn’t even keep a record of who flies on his private jet and some are city officials.
The Unions are fighting saying big brother or Mike Bloomberg has gone too far but whether you welcome an Orwellian future where your comings and goings are technological documented or not, we the people can’t afford this massive financial guzzler of mega bucks.
This is as crazy as Mike Bloomberg hiring his campaign staff after the election in the midst of a budgetary meltdown that could take NYC from a recession to a depression but that didn’t stop king Mike from giving them all 6 figure salaries and The New York Post estimated will cost tax payers 2 million.
CityTime, SAIC, Sperion, Bondy’s consulting fees, etc. all are costing tax payers a fortune and so far this technology Bloomberg would thrust on us like he did his 3rd term denying us a referendum is costing the people of NYC BigTime. We can’t afford a big brother technology program put forth like the Titanic.
You would think Christine Quinn would be leading the charge to stop this but as always she is assisting the mayor as if she worked for his private empire instead of his public one.
Mike Bloomberg’s techo-dreams are the NYC tax payers worst nightmares....
Articles from the Daily News
Posted on 03/26/2010 09:53:06 AM
The city is paying some 230 "consultants" an average salary of $400,000 a year for a computer project that is seven years behind schedule and vastly over budget.
Posted on 03/01/2010 08:46:05 PM
Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged Monday the $722 million CityTime system has "been a disaster" - but offered no plans to fix it.
Posted on 02/11/2010 10:47:20 PM
City Controller John Liu is refusing to approve a new $8 million contract the Bloomberg administration has awarded for the city's controversial payroll and timekeeping system.
Posted on 01/12/2010 08:55:49 PM
Sal Salamone, a former City Hall technology chief, received millions of dollars from the city over the past decade as a private consultant helping to devise a controversial new timekeeping system for city workers.
Posted on 12/17/2009 09:18:57 PM
Why has CityTime, a high-tech timekeeping and payroll system for city workers, ballooned in cost from $63 million to $700 million and fallen years behind schedule?
