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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/09/08 Technologies December 9, 2008 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE TECHNOLOGIES BOARD HELD ON December 9, 2008 The Regular Session of the TECHNOLOGIES BOARD of The Colony, Texas was called to order at 6:00 pm on the 9th of December, 2008 at CITY HALL, in the City Managers Conference Room, City Hall, 6800 MAIN STREET, THE COLONY, TEXAS, with the following Technologies Board members present: Chad Joyce Jack Turner Bill Swink Beverly Jones Steve Hoffman With five out of seven members present a quorum was established and the following items were discussed. 1.0 Call Meeting to Order: 6:00 P.M. 2.0 DISPOSITION OF MINUTES Acceptance of Technologies Board Minutes for a meeting held on November 4, 2008. 3.0 CITIZEN INPUT None 4.0 AGENDA ITEMS 4.1 Consider and approve a recommendation for City Works application. Steve Eubanks, Director of Public Works for the City of The Colony, explained that the Public Works department currently keeps track of their production manually and there in no link between the work and the geographic data. A committee was formed of staff from several departments to evaluate software packages. The committee found that City Works fits the needs of the city and will fully integrate with the GIS software. Mr. Swink asked if the software will work with the blades that are installed. Bruce Maker, IT Manager, said it will work with the hardware that is currently in place. Ms. Jones asked if there are any special requirements for the software. Mr. Maker said the only special requirement is the ESRI software what we will discuss on item 4.3. Mr. Porter asked if the TrakIt software that was reviewed is the same that is currently in use by the Planning Department. Mr. Maker said it is the same software. Mr. Porter asked why we are not considering the TrakIt software. Mr. Maker said it does not integrate with the ESRI software and it does not have enough capabilities. Mr. Eubanks explained that TrakIt is largely project oriented and it does not have the cost per unit capability that they are I December 9, 2008 looking for. Mr. Porter asked if they would be changing the TrakIt software that we currently have. Mr. Maker said that Development Services is using it for permit tracking and project tracking. This software is more for cost tracking and man power tracking. Mr. Swink asked if TrakIt and City Works will integrate together. Mr. Maker said they will not. Mr. Hoffman asked if there was any kind of return on investment for this software so that it will pay for itself. Mr. Eubanks explained that he thinks it will pay for itself when it comes to managing our infrastructure. Once the software is integrated and they get some of the current maintenance data put in they are hoping it will help them keep track of street repairs and water line repairs among other things. Mr. Maker explained that the software has the capabilities to set up a preventive maintenance schedule. Mr. Porter asked if the software would allow them a purchasing capability. Mr. Eubanks said it does have inventory capability but initially they will not purchase that feature. Mr. Porter asked if the software is Microsoft Project based. Mr. Maker said it will run on Windows 2003 and it is proprietary software with a SQL back end. Mr. Turner asked if all of the software reviewed was basically the same thing. Mr. Eubanks said it was but some integrated better with the GIS software. Mr. Maker explained that they made several site visits to other cities to have demonstrations of the different software. Mr. Turner asked what the time frame is to implement this software. Mr. Eubanks said he would like to see the software acquired by January and after training he would like the see it implemented by April 1St. Mr. Swink asked what would be involved for IT to install the software. Mr. Maker said that they are looking at having the vendor come out to install the program and implement it. Mr. Turner asked if this had already been approved in the budget. Mr. Eubanks said it was approved in the 2007-2008 budget. Mr. Porter asked how many licenses we get. Mr. Maker said that we will purchase the software with unlimited licenses and purchase maintenance each year after that. Ms. Jones made a motion to approve a recommendation for the purchase of City Works software application. Mr. Swink seconded the motion. Motion carries. 4.2 Consider and approve a recommendation for fiber optic connectivity between City Hall and One Harris Plaza, Animal Control and Waste Water. Mr. Maker explained that he would like to run fiber optic from the back side of City Hall down Elm Street to East Lake Highlands and Forrest. This will give us the fiber connectivity for the new building that will be built next year at that site. They are looking at 36 strand fiber with conduit being capable of carrying two more 72 strand cables if necessary. There will be a five year limited warranty with a four hour response time. Mr. Hoffman asked if there will be any redundancy or back up to that location. Mr. Maker said there is not at this time but it is in the plans for future. Rebecca Koo, Finance Director, asked if they could use the wireless as a back-up plan. Mr. Maker said we could use it as long as it works. Mr. Swink asked if they charge an hourly rate for service calls. Mr. Maker said it depends on the situation and who is responsible for the damage to the fiber. Mr. Hoffman asked if they would be putting up signs notifying people to call before digging. Mr. Maker said they had not thought of installing signs because state law requires people to call before digging. Mr. Hoffman recommended that we do it just as a - safety measure. Mr. Steven Steele, a resident of The Colony, asked how long the first pull of cable would be. Mr. Maker said the pull is 3,300 feet with the first cable being 2 December 9, 2008 approximately 2,200 feet to the Animal Control facility and the junction box. Mr. Steele asked if Mr. Maker felt comfortable with 36 fibers. Mr. Maker said that based upon the population of the employees in those facilities and the fact that we will have fiber going down Main street in the future that can be tied off to creating a small loop in that area he is comfortable with 36 strand. He feels that 32 strand would be too little. Mr. Swink made a motion to approve a recommendation for the fiber optic connectivity. Mr. Hoffman seconded the motion. Motion carries. 4.3 Consider and approve a recommendation for Environmental Systems Research Institute Small Municipal and County Enterprise License Agreement. Mr. Maker explained that this is the GIS software and we currently we pay for maintenance on licenses every year for the software and the server which allows us to upgrade each time an upgrade comes out. With the City Works software going in to place and upgrades that will be done he feels it would be more beneficial to the city to move to an ELA agreement. Based on the number of licenses that we will need we will spend more money than the yearly, maintenance costs of an ELA agreement. Mr. Hoffman asked if he is correct in assuming that we would be cutting our costs by about fifty percent. Mr. Maker said he is correct. Mr. Maker said the cost is also based on a population of fewer than 50,000. Mr. Hoffman made a motion to approve a recommendation for the Enterprise License Agreement. Ms. Jones seconded the motion. Motion carries. 5.0 ADJOURNMENT With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 6:28 p.m. APPROVED: A d. urner, Chairman t r, seem y- Bilt V1CQ- crar'r ov-'N 3