11/18/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Minutes 11-18-02 Page 11 "better deals than what we currently have right now." We are basically going to look at whether or not their statements are true. The other aspect of this was that we were going to look at our current communications bills and see that we are getting the best amount of money for what we are paying so that the community-example: long distance rate could be 8 cents/minute and we could possibly do better. So this was one aspect that they were going to look at to see whether or not there were better rates out there that the community could utilize; a better savings for the community and just to make sure that what we are doing right now is in line if we want to move into fiber optics, if we want to make sure our equipment is up-to-date. That's what this was all tied into. That's how I understood what this was all about. Mr. Marquardt said the presentation last week didn't hold a lot of hope that we were going to save much money and if that's a major part of the basis, I think we should be looking at other alternatives. First of all, define just what is the problem that we are chasing? I don't feel that we have enough thinking on this issue to go out and hire a consultant on it. Dr. Parker said I think that if Council were to vote to approve this, I think we need to make sure that we get a cost analysis so we can see, obviously I would like to know how much we saved versus how much it costs in the long run. Typically we would do something like that but I would like to make sure we do get that information so that we can see it. Mr. Riter said Mr. President, I have a thought. Could we possibly table this and discuss it next week and bring it back on the agenda for approval so that we could have further discussions since obviously there are some concerns on Council? Council President Buckholtz said we certainly can do that but I have some comments to make about it which, if I may-we can take a moment here--whether we discuss it here or whether we discuss it at Caucus, I am not sure we will have more information. Something for a long, long time I have been concerned with is technology. I mean, way back (I don't know the dates and the times) but we replace a phone system or we upgrade this, or we have a service contract, or we upgrade to a certain kind of printer or Xerox machine, because I am connecting with the technology world, I mean we all are-Bill, you showed me the first Powerpoint presentation that I [saw]--Bill Marquardt. I do not know if it is so much the cost savings, I think that is part of what they go in to try to do in Phase I, and there may be a bit of that. I think the big picture is worth talking about. And, again, if it's Council's will to table it, we could do that. But, I wouldn't mind taking a moment and mention what a few of those things are. I think things have been discussed about everything from what we need to do to Beta Drive luring new technology companies in here; I think we have talked about everything from the power of the Internet using our website; we have talked with many residents of new ways to communicate with residents, communicate between the buildings. We have the possibility of building or developing or redesigning certain municipal buildings. I don't even know if your building--my understanding (when I started asking questions) some people are accessing the web through dial-up connections while other people in other buildings have DSL, systems don't match systems. It is a perpetual problem that only gets worse. It's what you end up calling good money after bad. If something breaks down--the reason Chief Mohr, I think, is in the center of it is obviously emergency services take precedent over everything. But, I mean, I have lots of information and I am