[open-government] Unique opportunity to advise major city $45 mil technology contract review - What open source, open data opportunities are there for Minneapolis?

Thu Jul 29 19:37:37 UTC 2010

Please share your input via: http://bit.ly/9A6nNn

Or reach Cam directly at:  cam at camgordon.org

Just to note, Minneapolis is not yet one of the cities listed for
their interest in sharing open data. Might technology support for open
data be a condition of this contract? What about interfacing with
efforts like OpenMuni - http://wiki.openmuni.org ? - Steven Clift,
http://stevenclift.com

...

Folks,

I am looking for some advice about a pending city decision and am
thinking some of you may have some valuable input to offer about it.
The Citys Business Information Services department is recommending a
renegotiation of the Citys contract for information/technology
services with Unisys Corporation. The contract is set to expire in
January 2013 and costs roughly $11 million a year. Under the proposed
terms it would be extended for four years (through 2016) in exchange
for some changes in service and a $280,000 savings in 2010 (and
additional savings in future years) for ta otal cost to the City of
over $45 million.  I have had concerns about this contract for some
time and do not think we should move forward with this extension
without conducting an analysis of alternatives, including potentially
going out for open bids on this contract, exploring moving some or all
of this work back in-house, and investigating whether open-source
software can better meet the Citys needs.  I was able to get my
colleagues to agree to a two-week delay on this action, and I hope
this will lead us to do more due diligence work before extending this
costly contract. The matter is set to come back to Council next
Friday, August 6.

The staff report with more information is included in item 11 here:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/2010-meetings/20100723/WM_agenda20100719.asp

You can find a copy of the current agreement here:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bis/UnisysAgreement.pdf

I welcome any input, questions, suggestions and opinions.

Thank you,

Cam Gordon
Minneapolis City Council Member, Second Ward
673-2202, 296-0579
cam at camgordon.org
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/ward2/
http://secondward.blogspot.com/

Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
  Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
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  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072