Phillip Lawrence, city/county purchasing supervisor, said if any problems result with payroll checks after Sept. 30, the city will not have any technical support to resolve glitches unless a new company is selected.

If city and county government payroll checks hit a snag after Sept. 30 officials will have to call someone for help, but it won’t be the company that now supplies such services.

A contract with Personnel Data System, which supplies the software, expires at the end of September and attempts to get another vendor and software package have stalled.

The city Works Board and Vanderburgh County Commissioners have conflicting ideas on finding a new vendor. And no matter which way the two government agencies decide to go, the situation could end up in court.

Three companies recently submitted bids in the $400,000 range to provide the software and other materials the city and county need.

A fourth company, however, requested a bid package, but didn’t receive one, officials said.

A fifth company presented a demonstration of its product and assumed it would receive a bid package, but didn’t, said City Attorney Kevin Winternheimer.

The Works Board last week, at Winternheimer’s suggestion, declared the case an emergency, saying the two other companies could submit bids and the three companies that bid earlier could modify their original bids.

This would avoid having to go through the formal rebidding process, which would take a couple of weeks.

But later that same night, the commissioners voted against rebidding the computer accounting package.

County Attorney Phil Hayes told the commissioners there was a “high risk” of lawsuits either by the companies which did not get the information or those which did.

The two bidders who were left out would now get to see what the other three companies bid.

“I’d like to be those two companies,” said Commissioners President David Mosby.

“We run some liability either way,” said Commissioner Richard Mourdock.

Mosby, Mourdock and Commissioner Catherine Fanello all voted to go with the three bids that have already been opened and accepted.

Fanello said the accounting package was properly advertised so the commissioners will not agree to rebid the project.

The city is paying for about 60 percent of the project. The county is picking up the other 40 percent.

Phillip Lawrence, city/county purchasing supervisor, said if any problems result with payroll checks after Sept. 30, the city will not have any technical support to resolve glitches unless a new company is selected.

The software used by the city is written in an older computer language that newer software doesn’t use, officials.

That has resulted in some breakdowns that required help from the company’s technical support staff, officials said.

Officials said the original bidders wanted from 60 to 220 days to fully install their systems.

Winternheimer told the Works Board on Monday he will talk to county officials “to see if they’ll come around to our decision.”

Winternheimer said he felt the city’s “approach is what’s best for the bidders. I think ours is more legally sound than theirs (the county’s).”

One of the companies that didn’t get to submit a bid the first time could ask a court to toss out those bids, and “we’ll be back where we are now,” he said.

Courier Press

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001