Austin Technology Services officials presented Austin Audit and Finance Committee with a plan drawn up by recommendations from consultants looking into IT services.
AUSTIN, Texas — Some city of Austin workers are concerned proposed budget cuts will hurt public safety.
David Cruz is one of the executive board members for the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1624 union. That chapter represents some employees with the City of Austin, including IT workers.
“When this IT consolidation was pitched initially folks were open to seeing room for growth, room for efficiency, room to cut down, expensive contracts,” Cruz said. “But, what they’ve seen is not a rigorous process.”
The city is working to centralize Austin Technology Services (ATS) and form One ATS (OATS). It is part of cost cutting efforts made after Prop Q failed to pass in November. The ballot measure would have increased property tax revenue.
“I’m really proud to say we didn’t wait for city council or community members to say we need government to operate more efficiently. This is a process that’s been underway for more than a year now,” Ed Van Eenoo, the city chief financial officer said in a Audit and Finance Committee meeting Wednesday.
At that meeting, ATS chief information officer Kerrica Laake presented the committee the findings and recommendations from consultants hired by the city to look into its IT department.
In summary, the consultants say Austin has too many IT employees, too many software applications and they are all across too many departments.
Comparing Austin to “peer cities,” the city is over spending by an estimated $201 million and has 98% more IT employees compared to other cities. The findings also suggest Austin has 30% of its ATS centralized where as others have their tech services 81% centralized. And, it is indicating that 2,009 software applications are considered to be redundant and should be cut.
“As we go through this transformation, we are open to making sure we have the best practice for the city of Austin,” Laake said.
Cruz does not agree with the consultants’ assessment, saying the findings are not giving enough insight because it is not clear what cities Austin is being compared to. He also added that the impacts to public safety are not being considered.
Cruz believes IT workers are always needed at a moments notice if systems involving GPS, dispatch, communications and other infrastructures go down. There is also a familiarity component to where IT workers are placed.
“When you take someone who has that embedded department experience out of their department, stick them in a new home with a new manager who doesn’t understand their work, that puts all of that at risk,” Cruz said.
For now, it still is not clear how much money the city will be saving by centralizing its technology services.