And so, what is the estimate of those savings over the next five years?
The reform teams are in the process of developing those savings. 360 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET
Again, it's anecdotal at this time but based upon certainly my involvement and my experience.
Well, you know, what our revenue is going to be is basically anecdotal at this time. I mean, it's our best guess.
So what I'd really like to urge the Administration to do -- and I know this is not your responsibility but -- is to let's get some number about what those out-year savings are going to be so we can build them into our Five-Year Plan, because, as you just testified, they're real. Now let's quantify them. 361 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET So to the extent that you have specific savings identified and specific investments identified over the course of FY '10 and the rest of the Five-Year Plan, please provide that information to the Chair.
Also, when we last met, there were some specific requests I made. (Timer bell rings.)
Thank you, Madam President. There were some specific requests I made with respect to any current reports that exist in your office or elsewhere in government, whether they're from outside consultants, vendors who have made proposals, et cetera, that those reports and numbers be shared with the Chair. Has anybody begun collecting those?
Well, it was my 362 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET understanding -- the only outside report that I had seen was the Deloitte report.
No, I think there are lots of -- I won't say who. There are lots of other vendors who have provided information to the CIO's office in the last year and over a number of years about, you know, and so --
Including from vendors. Okay. So... I'd like to get back to President Verna's question, which was about moving Communications or -- from the DOT, MOIS, DOT to -- back to Public Property. A large part of the reason that that was moved over to your jurisdiction in the first place was because of the very network issues you're trying to 363 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET resolve. In other words, it was Public Property that was doing the procurement process for much of the dark fiber or other kinds of way we connect, because when we bought from Verizon, or whether we were using fiber or whatever from building to building, Public Property was setting that up. That is the reason the edge devices within our fiber are so poor. And I don't think it make any sense for us to turn that back over to the people who screwed it up. I mean, our network is bad because Public Property knows about voice, but that's not what networks are about today.
Perhaps there might be a misunderstanding. Public Property is only dealing with voice -- the Centrex, cellphones, and that sort of thing. 364 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET
As it relates to the network of the City, meaning the data network and so forth?
Well, it's the same -- it's the same -- it should be the same network. They're using some, you know, fiber for voice and other things like that --
-- or anything 365 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET related to the future, which is exactly why I cordoned it off. We were dealing with the legacy things that, frankly, when we look -- if we turn the clock forward five years, it will be that vision that we talked about, which is a completely converged voice and data network.
So effectively, voice will go on top of the data network. So think of -- I kept voice-over in Property, and I'm now building up a data network capability that will allow us to handle voice in the future. At that point, things like Centrex things, you know, the traditional things we were doing in Property, completely morph into what we're doing in the new world. So all's I was doing was cordoning off effectively the legacy.
So we're talking about spending, gosh, I can't 366 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET remember, 36, $60 million on a combination voice/data network for the police system, Motorola, et cetera. And it's my understanding that that's being handled by Public Property and not by DOT.
And it's roughly, I believe, $36 million. And it really has nothing to do whatsoever with the core network of the City.
Except that the integration of those two can increase police manpower by one hour per shift.
Yeah, I agree. I have full confidence in Frank Punzo, the Deputy Commissioner. As I said before, technology in the City, I'm CIO of the entire thing. And I function 367 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET every day, working with professionals across every department, including Property. So to me, it's completely seamless, as one IT group. And I have absolutely no reservations in continuing it.
Okay. So how many people are actually performing an IT function in the City?
Roughly, in the Fiscal Year '10, I'd say about 520 people, you would say, have IT job titles and related.
Well, you know, we have a civil service, and we have normal job titles.
And so what I'm 368 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET saying is that since we don't, you know, have all of the IT people in one place, what I do is go across and say, Give me all the of people that are doing the IT jobs.
And as part of that department, there's roughly 520 that are very specifically doing the IT-related functions.
Councilman, I'm sorry. Councilman Rizzo's had his light on for sometime. Do you mind giving him the opportunity to ask questions.
Thank you. First of all, Mr. Frank, I want to thank you for the progress that you've 369 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET made. And I agree with two things immediately that you've done. First of all, giving back the old, antiquated phone system to Public Property was one of the best things that you've ever done, because the IT people were not familiar with that aged, ancient technology, because I saw it suffering when it went to IT, because lots of the things that needed to get done weren't. And I have a lot of confidence also in Frank Punzo. He's very responsive when it comes to taking care of the telephone network. The other thing that I agree with is that your strategy in fixing what we have first, increasing the bandwidth of our Internet access; that was absolutely one of the best decisions, because we couldn't move forward with what we had.
It was 370 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET ridiculous. It was sad to see what we were dealing with. So I want to compliment you on trying to make what we have work before we start dealing with a lot of bells and whistles. The other issue that I would like to talk about is something that you may be familiar with or you may not be; I think you will when I use the name of the project. It was called Project Ocean.
You've heard of that. I wonder if you can provide to the Chair, if you can't give us a report right now, and I don't think you'll be able to do the entire request, is the status of Project Ocean today, what that actually cost us to do.
And is it 371 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET behind us now? Are we still spending money? What is the result of our 4 million bucks? You know where I'm 5 heading, right? 6
First of all, the 7 things I can't answer, I'd have to go 8 back and get what the total cost to date 9 has been on Project Ocean. 10
Oh, okay. 15 I do not have with me the total 16 cost of Project Ocean, but I'm sure we 17 can get that for you. 18 As it relates to the status, our 19 water billing works, it's sending out 20 bills. And what we're doing now is what I would call a cleanup, a kind of -- the thing is implemented and working and so forth. And now, cleanup items might be additional, last-minute functions. Or we need a report. Or, you know, some of the 372 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET things you need to do at the end of an implementation. But the most important thing that we're doing, which is also something I think important for us to do in the future. The implementation was done by outside contractors. And in the end, obviously, for ongoing support and maintenance, you end up writing those checks forever. So the process we're in in this year is what I would call a transition, a knowledge transfer, and figuring out how City employees can continue to maintain and support that water revenue system as opposed to paying outsiders. So that's really where we are. We're in kind of a project transition. And so, over the course of the year, the consultants go down and the internal City employees go up.
Could you -- not that I want you to guess, but do you have a feel for what Project Ocean cost 373 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET us, without dotting the I's and crossing the T's?
No. We have a sea of heads saying no. I really have no 6 clue.
Okay. And I agree with some of my colleagues that, like voice-over IP; we've been talking a about that for a lot of years. And I'm sure there's some point where your group will get back and work with Public Property to develop a voice-over IP system that work well.
I know we've 374 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET got something going, but it's not --
Oh, no, no, no, no. 4 Absolutely. This is not, "Let's wait five years from now."
You know, like you said, let me -- can I please get a network that's bigger than a straw, because voice-over IP is all about that network.
So now we're there, and we'll be working with Public Property actually in 2010 to start looking at, we get back to the cost benefit so that we create the right project and make sure that we know what we're doing and what it's going to cost and what the benefit is of converging those things.
And thanks for all of the improvements that I've seen since you've been here.
And your 375 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET team.
Right. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. MR. McPHERSON: Councilman Green.
So we were talking about IT-spending. So, basically, we have 520 City employees. Do you know what the average salary is of that? Or do you have them broken down by department?
Okay. If you could -- rather than go through it now, we'll save time if you could provide that to --
Yeah, we can provide that to you. We have that broken down by department.
So you know hardware purchases, software, consulting 376 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET contracts, what departments.
Okay, great. That's terrific. And that is great progress. Thank you. Thank you for that. I think, with that information on its way to us, I will just look at that and then follow up with you personally.
Madam 377 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET President?
I'm sorry, Madam President. I forgot to make one specific request, and that is of both DOT and the Managing Director's Office: Could they please provide us with the specific detail of exactly what --
I think they're both engaged in conversation. Mr. Frank, hold on a minute, please. (Mr. Frank returns to witness table.)
With respect to -- and I'll be making this request, or if I'm not here, hopefully the President or Charlie can, or maybe we can just make a general request for every single department, if we could please get specific detail about the contingency Plan B cuts, what exactly the savings 378 4/7/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - 2010 BUDGET are, what personnel are impacted, what Class 200 spending is impacted, et cetera. That's my only request for both the Managing Director's Office and the Department of Technology.
Thank you. We're going to continue the Records Department to another day. We don't know what day that will be, but we'll certainly advise them. Sorry. We tried to get you are earlier. Thank you. And this committee will stand in recess until Tuesday, April the 14th, at 10 a.m. Thank you all very much. (Proceedings end at 4:52 p.m.) * * * 379 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings of the City of Philadelphia Council Committee of the Whole are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, and that this is a true and correct statement of same. __________________________________ JOSEPHINE CARDILLO Registered Professional Reporter (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)