Austin city workers fear that the plan to consolidate the city\u2019s information technology staff into one central department \u2013 called the \u201cOne ATS\u201d initiative, or OATS \u2013 could lead to hundreds of layoffs over the next two years. They also believe the consolidation could harm city residents\u2019 health and safety. AFSCME Local 1624, the city workers\u2019 union, presented a letter to City Manager T.C. Broadnax on March 4, demanding that he halt OATS.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur members in offices and in the field throughout the City of Austin and Travis County stand in solidarity with city IT workers whose expertise they rely on day in and day out,\u201d the letter, signed by AFSCME leaders Brydan Summers and Carol Guthrie, states. \u201cOATS will reduce the quality of our work, jeopardize our services, threaten our livelihoods, and put our city at risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
AFSCME presented the letter the same day that Kerrica Laake, the chief information officer of Austin Technology Services \u2013 the city\u2019s dedicated IT department and the \u201cATS\u201d in One ATS\u00a0 \u2013 shared information<\/a> with the city\u2019s Audit and Finance Committee suggesting that Austin could save $200 million a year by consolidating IT staff.\u00a0Laake said the city spends 81% more on IT services than peer cities. She said only about 30% of city IT staff works in the Austin Technology Services department, with the remaining 70% spread out in other departments like Austin Energy, Austin Water, and Transportation and Public Works.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have duplicate functions, redundant systems, inconsistent standards,\u201d Laake said. \u201cAnd our departments are maturing at a different level across the city in terms of their technology capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Laake\u2019s data comes from research conducted last summer by Gartner Consulting, a third-party auditor working under a contract with the city. Gartner shared an initial report, which has not been made public, on the IT services with city leaders last August, according to the Austin American-Statesman<\/a>. The report \u2013 which the Statesman and AFSCME obtained through open records requests \u2013 estimates that the city employs 583 more IT workers than comparable cities. Gartner recommends consolidating the city\u2019s IT workers and cutting the number of applications used to provide the services. City officials have repeatedly said that the consolidation would not necessarily lead to layoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n AFSCME\u2019s letter to Broadnax notes that several departments have raised internal concerns about the consolidation and stresses that the city\u2019s IT workers perform jobs that safeguard residents\u2019 health and safety. \u201cSome of these include Austin Energy\u2019s coordination with ERCOT, traffic signaling and emergency traffic controls, air traffic communications, GPS guidance for first responders, protection of private health records and personally identifiable information, and development and improvement of department-specific tools and applications,\u201d the letter states. \u201cThese systems and the knowledge to operate them are not interchangeable.\u201d<\/p>\n AFSCME members rallied on the steps of City Hall on March 4 to introduce the \u201cStop One ATS\u201d campaign, with workers from different departments warning about the effects they believe the consolidation will have. Braniff Davis, a geospatial analyst with the Austin Fire Department Wildfire Division, said OATS would \u201cdrastically gut our ability to fight wildfires by moving me and my staff to ATS.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n David Gimnich, an analyst with Austin Transportation and Public Works, said it is essential that his team stay embedded at TPW to provide lifesaving information to colleagues in the field during emergencies. \u201cIf we don\u2019t, those operational decision-makers won\u2019t know who to contact, those field crews won\u2019t know exactly where to go and what to do in those split-moment decisions,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Austin Technology Services\u2019 Trish Niswander said the department is not ready to absorb hundreds of people in the consolidation. \u201cThis whole process has been totally obscured from the employees inside the department,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have not been able to provide adequate input.\u201d<\/p>\n