DMS reviewing Convergys contract
Found this while doing some research on the web:
from Tallahassee.com
____________________
Democrats assail privatization efforts
By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR
Hoping privatization will be an election-year embarrassment for Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother, Democratic legislators said Thursday that the state's $278 million Convergys contract is "a disaster" for taxpayers and state employees.
Bill Simon, head of the Department of Management Services, said for the first time that lawyers are "reviewing" Florida's largest privatization effort in case the state has to bail out. But he assured members of the Legislative Budget Commission that the system is "in the final throes of testing" and that the state won't start paying the company $3 million a month to handle personnel, payroll and benefits until the system works.
"We kind of burned that bridge behind us before we're completely over it," Simon told the Tallahassee Democrat after he left the meeting.
The deal with the Ohio-based management consulting firm was signed in August 2002, eliminating 900 state jobs and avoiding the $40 million cost of upgrading the state computer system used to handle personnel functions.
Simon, who wasn't DMS chief at the time, said Thursday that the state was "overly aggressive" in setting dates for the company. Convergys assumed staffing services May 1 but missed June and January deadlines for taking over payroll, records management and benefits.
The Budget Commission approved a $3.7 million patch to keep the old computer system running through June 30, taking the money from a fund that would have paid Convergys.
Simon and Convergys officials in Jacksonville vigorously denied accusations by Democrats who said the company was running the Florida contract out of its India call center.
Chris Emerick, operations vice president of Convergys Employee Care, said the company has created 500 jobs - about half in Tallahassee - to handle state government personnel functions. He said Convergys serves some big companies through India but is contractually required to handle Florida service in the state.
'A total, total disaster'
Senate Minority Leader Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, joined others in urging Simon to consider pulling out of the contract but said DMS needs to see the final payroll tests through and hope they work.
"We rushed headlong into this," Klein said. "I have no problem with outsourcing services if it's going to be better, cheaper, whatever. This has not been the case."
Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, used a variant of the old saying "that dog won't hunt" to describe how hopeless the Convergys situation seems: "Sometimes, you just have to shoot these dogs."
"If any vendor had done this with any company I've worked with, we would have taken them to court," said Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, the incoming Senate minority leader. "It's been a total, total disaster."
"It seemed like when they were lobbying for this, you couldn't get from your office to the bathroom without hearing how great it was going to be," Smith told Simon. "Have you hired a lawyer yet on this thing?"
"We've reviewed the contract, yes," Simon replied. He said DMS staff attorneys would advise him on exit options.
At issue: keeping jobs in Florida
Earlier Thursday, State Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox and a dozen legislators signaled that they will use privatization to try to upstage the Republicans during the Legislative Session that starts March 2.
House Minority Leader Doug Wiles, D-St. Augustine, and state Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, said they will try to amend any privatization bill so that contractors would be required to hire Florida workers and to make monthly payroll reports so lawmakers could see whether the state is saving money.
"Our economy in Florida is struggling," Campbell said. "In the past four years, our state has lost more than 58,000 manufacturing jobs. Those employees who sought retraining in the high-tech sector are now finding themselves downsized again, as companies move jobs to countries where people live on as little as $1 a day."
Campbell and Wiles also cited the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's contract for outsourcing its computer operations to Accenture, a Bermuda-based company, and the hiring of the Staubach Group in Dallas to negotiate office leases for the state.
Staubach is not being paid by the state, Simon said, but works on commissions paid by landlords who lease space to state agencies. The legislators maintain that Florida companies could provide those services.
There are no major privatization efforts on the legislative agenda so far, and with only 14 votes in the Senate and 39 in the House, the Democrats couldn't stop any. But they could use their amendments to keep the issue in the public eye during the presidential campaign.
"In my personal opinion, George W. Bush should run for president of India," said Maddox, the party chairman, "because he's created more jobs there than he has in the state of Florida."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact political editor Bill Cotterell at (850) 222-6729 or bcotterell@tallahassee.com.
from Tallahassee.com
____________________
Democrats assail privatization efforts
By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR
Hoping privatization will be an election-year embarrassment for Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother, Democratic legislators said Thursday that the state's $278 million Convergys contract is "a disaster" for taxpayers and state employees.
Bill Simon, head of the Department of Management Services, said for the first time that lawyers are "reviewing" Florida's largest privatization effort in case the state has to bail out. But he assured members of the Legislative Budget Commission that the system is "in the final throes of testing" and that the state won't start paying the company $3 million a month to handle personnel, payroll and benefits until the system works.
"We kind of burned that bridge behind us before we're completely over it," Simon told the Tallahassee Democrat after he left the meeting.
The deal with the Ohio-based management consulting firm was signed in August 2002, eliminating 900 state jobs and avoiding the $40 million cost of upgrading the state computer system used to handle personnel functions.
Simon, who wasn't DMS chief at the time, said Thursday that the state was "overly aggressive" in setting dates for the company. Convergys assumed staffing services May 1 but missed June and January deadlines for taking over payroll, records management and benefits.
The Budget Commission approved a $3.7 million patch to keep the old computer system running through June 30, taking the money from a fund that would have paid Convergys.
Simon and Convergys officials in Jacksonville vigorously denied accusations by Democrats who said the company was running the Florida contract out of its India call center.
Chris Emerick, operations vice president of Convergys Employee Care, said the company has created 500 jobs - about half in Tallahassee - to handle state government personnel functions. He said Convergys serves some big companies through India but is contractually required to handle Florida service in the state.
'A total, total disaster'
Senate Minority Leader Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, joined others in urging Simon to consider pulling out of the contract but said DMS needs to see the final payroll tests through and hope they work.
"We rushed headlong into this," Klein said. "I have no problem with outsourcing services if it's going to be better, cheaper, whatever. This has not been the case."
Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, used a variant of the old saying "that dog won't hunt" to describe how hopeless the Convergys situation seems: "Sometimes, you just have to shoot these dogs."
"If any vendor had done this with any company I've worked with, we would have taken them to court," said Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, the incoming Senate minority leader. "It's been a total, total disaster."
"It seemed like when they were lobbying for this, you couldn't get from your office to the bathroom without hearing how great it was going to be," Smith told Simon. "Have you hired a lawyer yet on this thing?"
"We've reviewed the contract, yes," Simon replied. He said DMS staff attorneys would advise him on exit options.
At issue: keeping jobs in Florida
Earlier Thursday, State Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox and a dozen legislators signaled that they will use privatization to try to upstage the Republicans during the Legislative Session that starts March 2.
House Minority Leader Doug Wiles, D-St. Augustine, and state Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, said they will try to amend any privatization bill so that contractors would be required to hire Florida workers and to make monthly payroll reports so lawmakers could see whether the state is saving money.
"Our economy in Florida is struggling," Campbell said. "In the past four years, our state has lost more than 58,000 manufacturing jobs. Those employees who sought retraining in the high-tech sector are now finding themselves downsized again, as companies move jobs to countries where people live on as little as $1 a day."
Campbell and Wiles also cited the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's contract for outsourcing its computer operations to Accenture, a Bermuda-based company, and the hiring of the Staubach Group in Dallas to negotiate office leases for the state.
Staubach is not being paid by the state, Simon said, but works on commissions paid by landlords who lease space to state agencies. The legislators maintain that Florida companies could provide those services.
There are no major privatization efforts on the legislative agenda so far, and with only 14 votes in the Senate and 39 in the House, the Democrats couldn't stop any. But they could use their amendments to keep the issue in the public eye during the presidential campaign.
"In my personal opinion, George W. Bush should run for president of India," said Maddox, the party chairman, "because he's created more jobs there than he has in the state of Florida."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact political editor Bill Cotterell at (850) 222-6729 or bcotterell@tallahassee.com.
posted by PABlo Bley aka Paul Alan Bley at 8:55 PM
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