HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-09-13 City Council (16)City of Palo Alto
City Manager’s Report
TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT:ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES
DATE:
SUBJECT:
SEPTEMBER 13, 1999 CMR: 357:99
USE OF CITY MANAGER’S EMERGENCY CONTRACTING
AUTHORITY FOR COMPUTER HARDWARE & SOFTWARE
This is an informational report and no Council action is required.
BACKGROUND
This report provides information on the use of the City Manager’s emergency contracting
authority to purchase computer servers and software necessary for the City’s Y2K
compliance. Since 1996, the City has been preparing for Y2K and has developed a three-
phased Y2K Transition Plan to provide the technical solutions and community
partnerships necessary to make the Y2K transition successful. Over the past year, staff
has described the Y2K Transition Plan and updated the Council on its status in
CMR: 127:99; CMR:205:99; and CMR343:99.
DISCUSSION
Phase I of the Y2K Transition Plan involves the assessment, testing and remediation of
the City’s central computer system hardware and software. These centralized systems
comprise the most critical areas of concern and have been prioritized into two categories:
mission-critical and secondary systems. Mission-critical are those systems affecting
public safety and delivery of utilities. Among the mission-critical systems identified
under Phase I are the Public Safety Dispatch (Dispatch) Project and the Utilities
Customer Information System (CIS) Project.
The Public Safety Dispatch Project supports the efficient dispatch of police and fire field
personnel and storage and retrieval of 911 call information. The project became
operational on September 5, 1999. Since the dispatch system supports public safety and
has the potential to impact life safety, it is important that the system be up, running and
available 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Most computer systems and their data
are taken "offline" (shut down) and "backed up" on a nightly basis to allow rebuilding the
system and the data if there is a system failure, data corruption or disaster. Public safety
systems require a special type of backup capability (called "hot" backup) that allows the
server to stay up and running. This requirement was not fully addressed in the Dispatch
CMR: 357:99 Page 1 of 3
Project. In addition, the server originally identified to provide "shadowing" (the ability
for the system to keep running if the first server fails) was not Y2K-compliant and
Hewlett Packard will no longer support the unit. To correct this situation, the purchase
of a server and special "hot" backup software was required, the estimated cost of which is
$88,000.
The CIS Project, which replaces the existing Y2K non-compliant Customer Utility
Billing Information System (CUBIS), involves a similar issue. The original project scope
did not address the necessary high level of fault tolerance and redundancy for the Utilities
CIS System. In order to provide a high level of system availability (24 hours per day, 7
days per week), a second server is needed. This second server for CIS also allows staffto
move up the currently projected operational start date for the new CIS System one full
month (from November 30, 1999 to November 1, 1999). This is a significant benefit due
to the rapidly approaching Y2K deadline. The estimated cost to purchase this server was
$153,000.
To acquire the required two servers and back up software, staff entered into lease
purchase contracts under the authority of the City Manager in emergency situations.
Total estimated cost of the contracts is $241,000. In accordance with Municipal Code,
the staff must report contracts entered into during an emergency at the next regular
Council meeting. Use of the emergency authority of the City Manager was necessary to
expedite the procurement of computer hardware critical to the CIS and CAD Projects.
The computer hardware was a "critical path" item in each project timeline. If this
purchase had been held for Council approval on September 13th, it would have
significantly delayed the CIS and CAD Project implementations, thereby increasing the
City’s risk of non-Y2K compliance.
RESOURCE IMPACT
Total estimated cost of the contracts is $241,000.
Computer Replacement Fund.
The funding will be covered by the
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
These systems are being acquired under the authority given the City
emergency situations (Municipal Code Section 2.30.090).
Manager in
PREPARED BY: Janet Freeland, Senior Financial Analyst
CMR: 357:99 Page 2 of 3
DEPARTMENT HEAD:
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL:
Manager
CMR: 357:99 Page 3 of 3