The council Finance Committee has gone around Ben Walsh’s administration to negotiate a contract for a comprehensive IT audit that, if approved at next week’s regular council meeting, will start immediately and be done within two months.
The action follows the recent resignation of a top Walsh aide, former Chief Administrative Officer Frank Caliva, days after the IT project delay was announced.
In a letter to the city clerk, the committee said the setback for a project to modernize the city’s payroll and timekeeping systems was the impetus for their action.
“Despite another $2.2 million allocated to the project earlier this year, another key deadline was missed on January 1,” the committee wrote in a letter to the city clerk request legislation for the Jan. 21 meeting agenda. “In light of these challenge, the finance committee determined that immediate action is necessary.”
Councilor Corey Williams chairs the committee, which also includes Councilors Pat Hogan, Jimmy Monto and Rita Paniagua. The committee said it won’t approve additional IT capital project spending until the audit is complete.
“The Common Council requires a deeper understanding of the city’s IT environment,” the letter said.
The payroll modernization project started with a $2 million project that was covered by a 2020 state grant and had an 18-month completion target. But after major parts of it went live in early 2023, officials realized more work was needed. A series of contracts with additional IT consultants and software companies brought total spending to $9.8 million through mid-December, with $7.7 million in paid invoices and $2.1 million in open purchase orders. The largest allocation has been for $4.7 million with Ernst & Young, which has become the primary contractor on the project.
Caliva’s resignation on Dec. 23 came after city employees learned via email on Dec. 20 that the new payroll and human resources management system was not going to be ready as promised to council earlier this year when they approved additional spending.
Caliva said he was stepping down to launch a new business, and Walsh downplayed the significance of the delay, saying the massive undertaking to update and integrate city systems will get finished this year. He said delays on big IT projects are common.
On Monday, Walsh said he’s not going to stand in the way of the council’s effort to have an outside review done.
“I was made aware of it and I’m anxious to learn more about it, but ultimately, I want the council to have the same level of confidence that I do in our team and in our work,” he said. “And if that’s what they need, then so be it.”
The firm council has lined to perform the IT audit is FoxPointe Solutions, an IT risk management division of Rochester-based accounting and business consultant Bonadio Group. The same company has performed external financial audits for the city.
FoxPointe will begin with an $18,000 initial phase that will run software scans to identify all applications used by the city in the cloud, on servers and on computers. They will then work with management to figure out who will be interviewed as part of a $70,000 operational assessment phase.
The second phase will dig deeper into the city IT operations, including the payroll modernization project, and come up with a report that includes an assessment of whether the project is viable.
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