Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Ballard Administration Wasted $10 Million On Public Safety Software It's Now Junking

Fox 59 News' Russ McQuaid has yet another example of how the administration of Mayor Greg Ballard bilked taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars. This one happened in the final months former Public Safety Director Frank Straub was still on the job. Straub made a decision backed by Mayor Ballard to dump a computer system long used by public safety agencies in favor of a new, untested software product offered by a company called InterAct. The City signed a $12.7 million contract with the company, $10 million of which has already been paid.

Former Public Safety Director Troy Riggs, who Mayor-elect Joe Hogsett just named IMPD's new police chief beginning in January, worked with the company to implement the new software. It had become clear before Riggs left his job that InterAct would not be able to fulfill its contract. Riggs left the mess behind to his successor, Dr. David Wantz, to figure out. Before he left, however, he negotiated an amendment to the original contract after its original owners became insolvent under which its new owner, Harris Computer, agreed to fulfill InterAct's obligations.

Dr. Wantz decided it was best for the City to drop the failed software vendor and invest in the former CAD system used by IMPD provided by Tiburon/TriTech. That's going to cost taxpayers at least $6 million in upgrades and patches to the old system. Wantz tells McQuaid he hopes a third party arbitrator might help the City recover some of the $10 million it wasted on InterAct's software.

The $6 million is a new expenditure not included in next year's Public Safety budget, which is supposed to contain revenues needed to hire additional police officers promised when the council enacted another 10% income tax increase this past year. "We’ve already talked to the controller about this, the controller understands the situation we’ve got in front of us and we’ve been assured they’re going to pay for it. They have to," said Wantz. "Our citizens have nothing to worry about and our police officers have nothing to worry about with our computer aided dispatch."

And when does somebody begin to question whether bribes are being paid Chicago-style here in Indianapolis to win public contracts worth tens of millions of dollars that provide no value to Indianapolis taxpayers? When does a prosecutor finally decide things have become just too smelly? The ROC. Vision Fleet, Blue Indy. Criminal Justice Center. InterAct. The list is growing.

UPDATE: Sources have confirmed to Advance Indiana that Frank Straub is not to blame for this mess just like the ROC deal laid at his feet was not at all his blame. The person who drove this contract with InterAct was former City-County Council President Ryan Vaughn, who pushed the deal through while he was serving as Ballard's chief of staff. If McQuaid had obtained e-mails exchanged between members of the Criminal Justice Planning Council, he would have learned that Straub and other members opposed the contract with InterAct. People should be asking why Vaughn, who now runs the Indiana Sports Corporation, wanted InterAct to get this contract so badly.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Straub. The horrible nightmare that keeps visiting us, over and over. Somebody indict him and send a couple of state troopers over to Spokane to bring him back here for some justice, because this guy has cost taxpayers as much money as Durham bilked from Indianapolis residents, and he ought to be in jail.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Mayor Ballard signed off on the deal. He's the man at the top who has supposedly been in charge for the past 8 years. I don't blame Straub. The buck stops at Ballard's desk.

Anonymous said...

Were our underpaid council members asleep at the switch again when this deal got approved?

Flogger said...

What a pity the Chicago Tribune or Sun Times cannot send a team of Reporters here. They would be working over time to uncover and expose the all the Crony-Capitalist Deals.

Anonymous said...

Inter Act could not honor their contract and promises. Make them honor the contact or take them to court. There were 100 plus public safety in numerous meetings that heard them.

Anonymous said...

Ya' all forgot the Cricket debacle, how much did that cost the taxpayers?

Anonymous said...

Lemme see.....Ah here it is. "The system of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather" by the alan parsons project

Anonymous said...

10 million on vapor ware. Unreal.

Anonymous said...

Goes without saying that the Indianapolis political establishment is a hotbed of greed and incompetence. It's too bad more can't be said of the mid-level political operatives who bend over backwards to facilitate these messes. They survive due to their relative anonymity. It's best just to move.

Anonymous said...

Vaughn's interest? Because he and Joe Loftus brought us this deal before he joined the Mayor's Office. From there, Defacto Mayor Loftus continued his representation of Inter Act. And don't forget, Inter Act was paid $8 million upfront for something they never had and everyone knew it. Start digging....

Anonymous said...

And Chief Riggs had the option to end this contract in its infancy and let it ride. Now, Riggs is creating (haveing created) a crisis of confidence. And he is the hero riding in on his horse. I hope his data (data driven policing) can lock people up and respond to 911 calls.

Anonymous said...

Ballard

How many million for the failed INTERact software. $10 million
How many million for the ROC?
How many million for the parking meters?
How many million for the failed Public Safety Facility? $12 million.
How many million for electric cars?

Add to this list and keep the thread going.

Anonymous said...

The media has missed a big piece of this story. Interact had the State of IN Quantity Purchase Agreement (QPA) for CAD/RMS software. The prospect of State police and every jurisdiction running the software being able to easily share information is not just desirable but some would argue critical. At the outset, there were no bad guys here. Burning $10Mill without enough to show for it is simply bad project management stemming from poor leadership.