De Blasio "Insources" IT Work For New York City

Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio is about to end the era of huge technology firms feeding off taxpayers with their legions of $500,000-a-year consultants camped at scores of city agencies for years.

On May 15, de Blasio’s top aides completed months of secret talks with the city’s largest municipal union on a far-reaching new “IT Insourcing” agreement.

First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris has committed in that pact, a copy of which the Daily News obtained, to “use city employees for IT work where it will achieve financial savings and improve service delivery, by reducing reliance on external IT consultants.”

City officials expect to save $3.6 million this year through the insourcing plan, but that figure could potentially rise to nearly $100 million over five years, according to the pact’s supporting documents.

De Blasio has thus turned into general policy an effort he began last year, when he took much of the city’s botched upgrade of the 911 system away from private contractors like Northrop Grumman and turned it over to municipal workers.

This signals a major shift by our city away from the “privatizing” or “outsourcing” model that has reigned in urban America for more than 20 years.

“There’s been a bias in too many places at using folks outside the public sector for certain city functions,” Shorris said Thursday. “We want to get away from a reliance on outsourcing things that don’t need to be outsourced.”

Mayor Bloomberg loved outsourcing everything he could - especially IT contracts.

And he defended this outsourcing even after the projects went years over budget or the outside consultants were found to be stealing millions from the city.

Here is part of a column from Adam Lisberg back in 2011 in the DN on that subject:

On his Friday radio show, he was asked about a new shift in city policy that had been in the newspaper for two days running - and didn't seem to know it had happened.

It's a shift on something that had been a sore point for Bloomberg's critics - outside contractors paid six-figure salaries for tech projects that blow deadlines and budgets, like the scandal-ridden CityTime system.

The mayor has long defended his administration's contracting policies, even though municipal unions and Controller John Liu say city workers could do the job for less.

So it was news last week when one of Bloomberg's deputy mayors, Stephen Goldsmith, agreed with critics and said New York will save tens of millions of dollars by bringing the work in-house.

On the radio, WOR-AM host John Gambling tossed Bloomberg a softball about it. But instead of explaining the new company line on insourcing, the mayor defended outsourcing.

"People say, 'Oh, you're spending too much money on outsiders.' If you didn't do that one contract outside, you'd have to have those people permanently on your staff," the mayor said.

"The consultants, they say, 'Oh, they charge a lot more.' Well, because that's the business," he continued. "They don't work all the time, so they have to get paid more. And sometimes they have expertise you don't have in-house."

CityTime, the 911 mess, the NYCDOE scandals (two here and here) the FDNY GPS mess, ARIS, the NYCHA computer mess - the Bloomberg Era incompetence on outsourcing goes on and on.

And yet, Bloomberg's pals in the news media gave him a pass then on this incompetence and they continue to give him a pass today.

Bloomberg was never personally held accountable for these.

It is good to see the current mayor change course and start to use municipal workers for these projects.

Why Are Bloomberg And Klein Still Considered Tech Geniuses?

Harris Lirtzman left this comment on the ARIS post from this morning:

I thought you and your readers might be interested in an article I wrote on Schoolbook on Jan. 28 in the long, painful lead-up to the contract negotiations called "Cut Waste at Education Department Before Negotiating Teachers Contract."

One could put any number of the technology and organizational and procurement boondoggles from the Bloomberg Era in any order of waste, perversity or simple ineffectiveness: my top candidates were SESIS (the "Special Education Student Information System"), your very own beloved ARIS, failure to collect hundreds of millions in federal and state reimbursements to the City for providing "related services" to students with disabilities because the DOE has no effective way to capture the information that would support the claims, stopping non-competitive contracts and procurements to "DOE-friendly" organizations and reforming or eliminating the failed and expensive school network systems.

I have always found it remarkable that the man who was responsible for building one of the most successful financial technology companies in the world could not get a single effective technology system build during his time in the City-- ARIS, SESIS, City-Time, Enhanced 911--but yet he and Joel Klein were lionized as visionaries and effective managers by many who wanted to believe.

ARIS we hardly knew ye but we're so glad to see you go.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/opinion-cut-waste-coming-table-over-teachers-contract/

I would add the NYCHA computer system, the FDNY and Sanitation Department GPS systems, and the EMT tablets to the list of Bloomberg tech boondoggles that Harris lists (SESIS, ARIS, CityTime and the 911 system.)

Let us imagine Mayor de Blasio had even a tenth of the failure that Bloomberg had with these boondoggles.

Can you imagine the press coverage?

And yet, Bloomberg has never been personally called to account for the billions of dollars of taxpayer money he lit on fire for these projects. 

NYCDOE Getting Rid Of Joel Klein's $95 Million Dollar Computer System Boondoggle

Gee, who couldn't see this coming?

A controversial $95 million computer system that tracks and distributes student scores and other data is headed for the scrap heap, the Daily News has learned.

The Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS) was implemented by the Education Department in 2007. It’s one of the city’s biggest computer systems, with records on more than 1 million current and former students. But it has been blasted by critics for being clunky and slow.

Former schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who oversaw the creation of ARIS, has also drawn fire for taking millions to maintain the system with his company Amplify.

That’s all coming to a screeching halt by 2015, Education officials told The News.

“The Education Department has decided to end our contract with Amplify as a result of the extremely high cost of the ARIS system, its limited functionality, and the lack of demand from parents and staff,” said agency spokeswoman Devora Kaye.

“The shockingly low usage of ARIS shows that the vast majority of families and Education Department staff don’t find it a valuable tool,” Kaye added. “By developing an internal program we’ll not only save millions of dollars, but better serve parents and school communities.”

NY1 did a couple of reports on ARIS years ago that demonstrated how many teachers and administrators found the system to be mostly useless and a huge waste of money.

I'm sure the Bloomberg DOE knew that, but I would bet Bloomberg kept it around because it was Klein's baby.

Now, a year into the de Blasio administration, the de Blasio NYCDOE is trashing it.

To which I say - good.

Next up on the trash heap?

Another Klein technological boondoggle - iZone, the computerized learning program that costs a bundle to run and does little to educate students or aid educators.

Pass/fail rates for iZone classes are abysmal - as is the cost to run them.

They stick kids who have failed classes in the past in front of computers for "credit recovery" classes.

Many of these kids already have difficulty paying attention in real live classes - that's why they have failed some of their classes in the past.

Who would think sticking them in front of a computer for hours a week and forcing them to slog through online material would work with students who already struggle in school?

Why Joel Klein, that's who!

More and more, we see the vaunted Klein track record fall to scrutiny and the light of day as the failure it was.

Of course, the real idea behind the system was to steal money from children and give it to edu-entrepreneurs:

“Good news they’re junking it,” said Arthur Goldstein, an English teacher at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. “They spent $95 million on that thing and my kids are in trailers. What they did with that money is criminal.”

Indeed.

Another Technological Boondoggle By Bloomberg That Is Going To Cost The City Millions

Want to know why the DOE couldn't find seats for incoming kindergartners with special needs for 2011 and now may have to pay for private school for those kids instead?

Because the computer program the DOE uses - a program that costs over $54 million - sucks:

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott is blaming the Department of Education's $79 million overhaul of special education programs for costly delays in finding seats for disabled kindergartners.

The agency missed its June 15 deadline for finding slots for about 2,500 kindergartners with special needs - and now the city could be liable for the kids' tuition in private schools.

Speaking at Tweed courthouse yesterday, Walcott pinned the holdup on the agency's switch to a new, Web-based system for tracking students with disabilities, called the Special Education Student Information System (SESIS).

"As a result of the transition to a computer system, those delays are there," said Walcott, referring to the new computer system that the Education Department paid Virginia-based MAXIMUS corporation $54.9 million for in 2009.

At the time, the agency also set aside another $23.7 million to implement SESIS over the next five years. The total cost of SESIS works out to about $600 for each disabled child currently enrolled in the city's public schools.

The program is supposed to ease the schools' delivery of services for disabled students by providing a system for tracking students' needs, but some teachers say it's riddled with problems.

They say they never received proper training, schools don't have enough bandwidth to run it properly, and they wait up to two hours when they call the program help line.

"It's impossible to know how many kids throughout the city aren't getting services because of problems with SESIS," said Julie Cavanaugh, a special education teacher at Public School 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

"It's not functioning properly - there's a serious flaw in the design," said Cavanaugh, adding that it's taking her twice as long to create records for students with disabilities using the new system.

Officials authorized schools to use emergency funds - essentially overtime - to pay for teachers to try to find seats for the incoming kindergartners on evenings and weekends.

Kids who didn't get seats are entitled to a private education paid for by the city under a 1988 legal ruling.

Tuition at approved private schools can exceed $30,000 per year. The city already spends about $100 million to educate about 4,000 kids in this situation.

Who signed off on using a new computer program to track students' needs that has serious design flaws?

Chancellor Klein did.

Here is the press release that MAXIMUS, the company that provides the shitty program to the city, put out in 2009 when they got the contract.

Here is what Klein said at the time (as quoted in the MAXIMUS release):

In a separate release issued yesterday by the New York City Department of Education, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein commented, “The new Special Education Student Information System represents a much-needed upgrade in how we perform vital special education activities, and demonstrates our continuing commitment to improving outcomes for our students with disabilities.”

How's that vaunted upgrade in how the DOE provides vital special education activities working not that they've handed over $54+ million to MAXIMUS?

About as well as you'd expect when you hire a crooked company convicted of Medicaid fraud.

Here is that story from back in 2007:

Monday the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Maximus, Inc., both announced via press releases that the Reston-based government contractor had reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington D.C. and the Justice Department's Civil Division.

Maximus, Inc., is a well-known government service company that provides consulting and program management services. In this case, the company had a contract with the District of Columbia's Child & Family Services Agency (CFSA) as a reimbursement consulting firm for CFSA's foster care program. After investigation initiated by a whistle-blower's federal civil lawsuit against Maximus, Inc., it was determined that the company had caused CFSA to submit claims to Medicaid for foster child services that had not been provided.

The civil lawsuit was filed by a former Maximus, Inc., division manager under the False Claims Act. A review was conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services that determined CFSA could not support 35 percent of its claims. As a result of that investigation, Maximus, Inc., paid $12.15 million, of which $4.93 million went to the whistle-blower.

The parties have now entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, a civil settlement, and a corporate integrity agreement to resolve the matter. Per the agreements, Maximus, Inc., admits responsibility for the actions of their employees, including a former company vice president, and will reimburse the government an additional $30.5 million. Further, the government will not file any criminal charges, but reserves the right to do so if Maximus, Inc., fails to comply with the agreements over the course of the next 24 months.

This sounds like EXACTLY the kind of company Bloomberg and Klein would hand millions of dollars to and it also sounds EXACTLY like the kind of company that would provide a computer system that does less than advertised and makes the work of providing special education services more difficult.

Just like IBM and Wireless Generation with ARIS, SAIC with CityTime and now MAXIMUS with SESIS, the Bloomberg administration has time and again wasted millions of dollars handing out boondoggle contracts to crooked companies and conducted little to no oversight of these companies as the projects have gone over budget, over time, and provided much less than promised.

This latest mess could cost the city tens of millions of dollars in extra expenditures. Under the law, they will have to provide private educations for the thousands of incoming kindergarten students with special needs who have not gotten admitted to a public school because of the SESIS mess.

As the Daily News reported, the city already spends $100 million to send 4,000 students to private school.

If they have to add another 2,500 to that list, you're talking at least $60 million in additional costs.

But the contract with MAXIMUS?

That's got another three years to go with two option periods for additional work.

Nice work if you can get it.

NYSED To Give Wireless Generation$27 Million Dollar No Bid Contract

The people running the NYSED don't even bother to hide the appearance of corruption anymore, do they?

The state Education Department is poised to award a $27 million no-bid contract to a company former city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein oversees, the Daily News has learned.

The money - part of the state's $700 million in Race to the Top winnings - will go to Wireless Generation, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., to develop software to track student test scores, among other things.

Klein took a job at News Corp. overseeing their educational technology business after he left the chancellor job in December.

City rules forbid former workers from contacting the agency that employed them for one year, but the rules would not formally bar contact between Klein and the state.

"It raises all kinds of red flags," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York.

"It just smacks of an old-boys club, where large amounts of public money are spent based not on 'is this the best product?' but 'I know this guy and I like him and I want to be sure he makes a lot of money.'"

Klein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wireless Generation helped build a similar system in the city called Achievement Reporting and Innovation Systems, or ARIS, that has been widely criticized in the city. The contract would expand the ARIS system statewide.

In a request to the state controller's office to sign off on a no-bid process, officials cited the tight timeline for beginning the Race to the Top project and the company's record at producing results.

State Education Department officials declined to answer any questions about the possible contract for nearly three weeks, but a document obtained from the controller's office Thursday makes the case for the no-bid contract.

State officials argued the ARIS system already covers 35% of the state, and the system had received "national recognition."

They also said Wireless Generation had a "demonstrated capacity" and would be able "to extend and expand ARIS" to the entire state.

State Education Department officials, in response to requests for comment, provided a document showing the controller's office approval for a no-bid contract.

The controller has not signed off on the contract, but has agreed to let Education Department officials bypass the standard bidding procedures.

Oh, boy - expanding a shitty data tracking system currently used in NYC to the whole state!

What a great idea!

And it's being done in a no-bid process!

Even better!

And the guy who has foamed at the mouth about Wireless Generation and ARIS - former Chancellor Joel Klein - is the guy now overseeing Murodch Corp.'s online education division, which now owns Wireless Generation.

He's the guy who originally signed off on the no-bid NYCDOE contracts with Wireless Generation for products that people hate using.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Hey, while we're at it, why not take the CityTime payroll system and make that statewide too!

I mean, sure it sucks as a payroll system, kinda the way ARIS sucks as a data tracking system, but at least the right crooks would be getting paid off in the process.

There are a whole bunch of people who ought to be going to jail on this one - from Klein to Tisch to John King.

Anybody who hands Wireless Generation even a nickel for the piece of shit system they have designed for data tracking is either a crook or one of the dumbest people on the planet.

Since I don't think either Tisch or King are dumb, that leaves crooked.

No wonder they want an accelerated time line for the contract and a bypass of the usual process.