Either closer to down--
If
you know and understand it, you can read.
The
Joint Committee on the Budget and Government Operations and the Economic, Capital
and Technology Development will come to order.
We will take a roll to establish quorum. Vice Chair Lee?
Thank you.
Ronnie Mosley. Vice Chair Ronnie Mosley.
Alderman Lospada. Alderman Dial. Alderman Robinson.
Alderman Yancy.
Alderman Hall.
Alderman Mitchell.
Alderman Harris. Alderman Beal. Alderman Chico.
Alderman Ramirez. Alderman Quinn. Alderman Gutierrez.
Alderman Lopez. Alderman Moore.
Alderman O'Shea. Alderman Rodriguez.
Alderman Tabaras.
Alderman Scott.
Alderman Sigcho-Lopez. Alderman Burnett.
Alderman Taliaferro.
Alderman Cruz.
Alderman Cardona.
Alderman Waguespack.
Alderman Rodriguez Sanchez. Alderman Conway.
Alderman Quezada.
Alderman Villegas. Alderman Mitts. Alderman Sposato.
Alderman Nugent.
Alderman Vasquez. Alderman Napolitano.
Alderman Riley.
Alderman Knutson.
Alderman Martin.
Alderman Emma Hoppenworth.
Alderman Sir Patton.
Chairman Curtis.
And Chairman Ervin make 22. We have a quorum.
This portion of the meeting is set aside for public comment,
and each member will have three minutes,
beginning with Dr. Sandy Norman.
I'm sorry. Before I do that, we have members who have requested
participation via Rule 59, Alders
Robinson, Harris, Riley, Silverstein, Cruz,
Mitts, Vasquez, Dial, and Quezada.
Is there a motion to accept those individuals? So moved by Vice Chair Lee.
All in favor signify by saying "I."
Any opposed?
Okay, in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, and we will
accept those individuals in. Let's check online.
Alderman Mitts.
I'm here, Chairman.
Okay, Alderman Mitts is present.
Alderman Harris?
Here.
Alderman Cruz?
Here, Chairman.
Alderman Quezada?
Present.
Alderman Riley?
Riley's present.
Okay. Anyone...
That's all. Okay. All right.
Okay. My apologies. With that being said, we'll move into public comment.
Each individual will have three minutes.
We will begin with Dr. Sandy Norman,
followed by Mr. George Blakemore
Blessings to everyone here. Honor to everyone
on the council and all the organizations that are represented.
And so I'm thankful today to be at this budget meeting.
One of the things that I do want to address, I was here on
yesterday, and they talked about the ShotSpotter.
I want to say that I have a family of a young lady that
died,
I believe this was back in January, that I'm in contact with.
And this young lady was left in an alley for a long time, a
few hours. I want to say to the city of Chicago, when we talk
about issues and budgets
pertaining to things like ShotSpotter, everything that
we could do for the city to help to deter violence, we
need to do it. I believe that taking away ShotSpotter,
I believe that it was wrong. And I want to just say this.
I'm active in CVI in some of the most dangerous
communities in the city of Chicago, Alderman Ervin, including your
ward. I work with a lot of those young men that are on
Springfield, Madison, Pulaski, and I help those young
people that are out there in that open drug market because they need help,
they need assistance, and they need jobs.
Part of the problem, I'll say to the council, is that we keep
funding a lot of these CVI organizations that
they're nowhere to be found. And I just can't sugarcoat it.
I'm not going to come down here anymore pretending and trying to
be nice when we have mass shootings, killings, and murders in
our neighborhoods and in our communities.
The problem is you have people that are sitting in these positions
that are out of touch with reality of what's really-- If you're not boots on the
ground actually doing the work, a lot of times, maybe you don't
know what's going on. And so I want to just say, even with that,
people are dying out there. We just had a police killed.
We got Uber drivers dying. We got young men in
our communities going to college getting killed.
What more do we need to do, and what more don't we see that
we need a change? There needs to be a change.
And so when we're advocating, Alderman Ervin, I saw you down at
Springfield advocating for money.
My thing to you is, if you're going to advocate, please put the money in the
right hands of the people that are actually doing the work.
And you got to put yourself in the position of these families who have
sons and daughters that are dying, that are being shot and killed.
It may not be your son or daughter that it's happening to, but there are
people that it is happening to. And just because ShotSpotter, it
may not be helpful to you, but for those people that live in certain communities,
it is. And people are asking for change, and people are asking
for help. And that's the reason why I keep coming here, because we need a system
change. We need to start listening to people that are actually
doing this work and that are actually present and not scamming
the churches. I'm calling out the churches now because it's all
a ruckus, and it's a scam. And your office is in a church.
Next, we have George Blakemore, followed by Jessica Jackson.
I'm looking at these young people.
When you bring them down to the chambers,
educate them
before they get here.
Always, each one of those young people should have
an agenda.
Each one of them need an agenda. So you
must educate our young people.
So again, it's very important
when it comes to budget and finance and technology.
Young people, what is happening? There are several departments are having
a joint meeting,
and they're discussing
matters that pertain to the government.
I was speaking earlier to one of the attendees here,
and the young lady, I was just loud, "You know, they
only get 2% of the contracts go to Black
people." And she was amazed. She said, "Are you
sure?"
She was thinking that maybe it's less.
Two, and there's Carla over here.
Only 2% of these contracts
go to Black contractors, to
Black people. So we can't beat up on these white folks.
We got Black faces on all these committees.
But go to your neighborhood. Go to your neighborhood, Mr. Ervin.
Can you hear what Sandy said, that ghetto you come from?
Can you hear Sandy Valen?
But you're pretending. You're pretending.
As the song says, "Pretend you're happy when you're blue.
It's not very hard to do." You're pretending to
be somebody.
The proof is
in the pudding.
You are alderman of a ghetto
ward. Abandoned buildings,
no jobs,
vacant lots, and highs.
Now, how can you say that you're somebody?
How can you say that you're somebody?
Maybe you're rich.
But maybe you are rich,
but the people in your ward are poor.
And in the city of Chicago, young people, and all of the
Blacks only get 2% of...
For all these Black aldermen in high places,
the Blacks...
Can you tell me that
story...
only 2%, and they can't beat up on you.
They can't beat up on you. Only 2%, you still got to
go. And you know what?
Thank you for your comments. Next we have Jessica Jackson, followed by
Taiwan Sims.
I want to commend this lady at the end of the
box
for paying attention. Thank you. Because you
got people on the panel that deliberately make sure that
they make sure that we see that they're not paying attention because they try to
discourage us from public speaking, and it's a form of bullying.
So this man right here with the glasses at the very end, the
Comptroller, and so you seem to have been writing a lot.
I want you to write down what I'm saying, because I'm an accountant, so let's
talk. Let's talk business.
My name is Jessica Jackson. Write that down.
Come on, because you've been writing,
but you don't want to write that down, do you?
My name is Jessica Jackson. Go look at the cases
that the city,
with wrongful evictions
by way of the public administrator.
That works with the county and the city.
Don't run that it's the county, it's the city, it's the city county junk, because
y'all overlap.
Look and see how the public administrator by way of the eviction courts,
which is a municipal district,
how they
advise them squatters to squat in my
property to deprive my mother's probate estate of income
for three years. For three years.
Go look that up. Oh, you don't feel like writing? What happened?
Did your hand break? Because you was writing profusely a few minutes
ago. Now you don't want to write?
Gone. Mr. Comptroller, look up that $9,600
bond that I had to put up for an appeal because the
public administrators are illegally trying to evict me out of my own property.
It got my name on the deed that's been paid for since I was a
teenager.
Oh, you don't feel like writing? What's wrong?
I thought you wanted to write. I thought you was business.
All right.
You know Mary Richardson Laurie, Corporation Counsel? I know you do.
You know John Hendricks? I know you do. Go to them.
Ask them about Jessica Jackson's case.
Ask them about how the city was involved, because they going, "It's the county,
it's the city, it's the city, it's the county." Ask them how the city was involved.
Give me my money.
Mr. Comptroller, give me my money.
My name is Jessica Jackson. Go look it up.
Oh, you still ain't writing?
Man, I thought you was about it,
writing like that, and now you don't want to write at all?
Aw.
But the good thing is, all this is on video.
Yeah. And it got me asking you to look it up.
And if you don't, there go another case, because that's going to be derelict.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we have Taiwan Sims, followed by Zoe Lee.
Good afternoon, committee. This lawsuit raises a
broader city oversight question,
whether Chicago internal accountability systems are preserving,
disclosing, and evaluating material evidence consistently,
or whether key evidence is being withheld, delayed, or selectively used in a
way that diminishes the case, diminishes due process,
and public trust.
And the headline reads, "Alderman Gardner sues city for
more than one million, blames IG office for withholding key
evidence."
Hey, right out of the
belly, I guess, of the beast.
But it's good look for Gardner. Because
in my regard, I've been kept out of this sanctum for one whole year
regarding two cases,
25120458301
and 25120869201, where I
was wrongfully, well, falsely arrested downstairs.
The case was SOL'd May 30th of
2025,
and yet it's been one whole year. I'm still standing in this box under
that illegal enforcement.
First Amendment violated and everything,
but yet they
tried to bring ethical charges against young Gardner, who had to sit there under
the weight of it, who had to sit under the weight of corporate counsel ignoring
him. Right, corporate counsel?
Oh.
And that's got to be hellified to know that your
work, the
place where you employed, doesn't want to properly take care of you.
The place that you're employed,
right? But imagine being a constituent, somebody who doesn't have that type
of resources, litigation, and things like that.
Imagine being an indigent father who simply on the other end came here to advocate
for his child.
Imagine having those enforcements imposed on
youAnd for what regard, Mr. C. Joe Lopez?
I came here talking about housing. I'm still homeless.
I came here talking about case 23D7597.
It still stands.
But there's a legal term called ab initio.
I should not be going through this from the beginning.
And yet I'm the low man, the layman on the end of the totem pole, trying to
speak to a whole room of people who should be helping me.
A room that they tried to keep me out of.
But in this room, I'm on record, and I should be on record
countless times speaking to you all about these issues, but not about this new one.
But I'm glad that Gardner is able to sue the city,
because on the back end of that, this constituent right here
will have legal premise to sue the city.
So I wonder how many liabilities are sitting in this room right
now.
Thank you for your comments. Before we proceed, we'd like to recognize
Alders Lampada and
Tabares.
Also want to recognize our commissioner for the Mayor's Office of
People with Disabilities, who's also been joined by young
people from Whitney Young High School's Deaf and Hard of Hearing program.
Commissioner?
Thank
you. Thank you.
Our next speaker is Zoe Lee, followed by
Quishonna Harris.
I used to live in DC, and Gallaudet
University is a deaf and blind university,
and
one of the best, I think probably the only one, so hopefully you guys attend
that university.
Michael D. Blesky, I'm Zoe
Lee from Chicago Flips Red, and you wrote underneath- ...
my post about you getting a $19,000 raise if
the budget passed, that that was inaccurate, and I was
misinformed. But the budget, I didn't write the budget.
I saw it. Now you
just came here. So at the end of the day, that
comptroller
position
was expected to get a $19,000 raise.
So
at the end of the day, you telling me I'm misinformed.
You're misinformed, and you're the comptroller.
So this is the issue. You want to say something? You want to say something?
Because you also said-
No, I-
You also said
that Brandon Johnson is a great man.
And I know that's inaccurate.
So anyway,
I want to go back to, because you all stole my minutes last time.
Joshua Davis, the president of Lionsview Manufacturing and Supply,
is Lionsview is officially bidding on Chicago's new gun violence
detection technology contract, replacing ShotSpotter
under Mayor Brandon Johnson. But he declined to
comment. Right?
And the reason why he won't comment is because this is the same company that won a
$55 million LED contract,
number 311290, spec number
1226261A, awarded
June 9th, 2025, a rebid by the Department of
Transportation. Even though production distribution companies
bid at $44 million, $10 million less, the
city still went with the higher bid.
So the reason why,
Dr. Norman, why our kids continue to get killed,
because they're trying to give it to Lionsview.
So the other eight that they thought they was going to take that 3%
budget cut when they were standing next to-- And I love Shola.
I love Shola Roberts for everything because of her father.
But they sat there, and they told the people,
if any of the bidders would take a 3% cut, and nobody didn't want to take
that 3% cut. So because of that, everybody's still
waiting because they're bidding on that shot detection.
But they want to give it to their homeboy, Joshua Davis,
because they just gave him that crazy contract for $10 million
more than the one that bid it for $10 million less.
So that's why. Shout out to Posado, I love you.
Thank you for your comments. And our final speaker is Quishonna Harris.
Hello. My name is Quishonna Harris, and I'm the founder of a new
initiative. I am developing a sanitation system in our
city.
I'm here today because I believe this system is a vital bridge between
community care and public safety, being located right across from the
Chicago Police headquarters. The sanitation facility will be a central
intake and assessment point where individuals can be met based off their
unique needs,
making them visible again. No longer just Jane Does and John Does.
This system is more about hygiene.
It's about a dignified path back into society through hygiene,
supported by a partnership between community care and public
safetyI would greatly appreciate your support in this vital
project. In addition, the sanitation facility will serve as a model
blueprint strategically placed across from the Chicago Police
headquarters. It would be a guided example for the future facilities
across Chicago, creating not just neighborhood stability, but
nationwide stability.
Technology plays a severe role because we are able to set individuals
back into the realm of society using facial recognition systems.
A stepping stone of pushing individuals to the next system, and putting them
out into the world to take the next step towards stability.
Identification services will
be utilized right away. All community services will be focused
and used while individuals are getting that extra push.
Systems,
registrations, check-ins, technical solutions, and everything under that
nature. Thank you very much for your support.
Thank you, ma'am. That concludes our period of public comment.
Today, we're hosting a joint subject matter hearing with the Department of Finance
and the Department of Technology and Innovation to overview the Q1
ERP report. All materials have been distributed
electronically. No votes will be taken.
In the
dais here we have Comptroller Michael Belsky and
Commissioner Nick Lucius. If the individuals in the box will
introduce themselves, after which the
committee will accept opening remarks, beginning with the Comptroller.
Melissa Clark with DTI, head of planning.
Phillip Bertongue, and that is the third deputy controller, payroll systems and
operations.
Joe Flores, first deputy Department of Finance.
Charla Roberts, chief procurement officer.
Thank you. Comptroller?
Thank you. Thank you, members of the committee,
Chairman Ervin,
Vice Chairwoman Lee, and all members assembled here.
We appreciate the opportunity to report back to you on the
management ordinance on,
the ERP system progress,
in particular, focusing on the first phase on time and attendance.
Our department processes tens of thousands of
checks every two weeks seamlessly.
Phil,
who was introduced, was responsible for that.
The
number of people going into government these days is dwindling just
because of demographics and people are aging.
So technology is going to be really critical
for us to function in the future,
and the ERP effort is a way to do that.
It integrates everything. So from my standpoint on accounting, every
transaction that occurs with respect to payroll,
procurement, and other matters,
will be accounted for in a much faster and more efficient
way of getting our financial statements out.
I
was at a rating agency for 15 years, and
management is a
credit factor now, and within management,
technology is really important.
ERP systems are at the top of the list,
and I can tell you that the
systems that fail
are because they don't have a deliberate process
where they have an implementer,
and they don't talk to the people that actually will use these systems.
And I want to attest before Nick
presents his progress that he has been
exemplary. The whole department's been exemplary in this regard.
They've reached out to everybody, they've included people, and they've
come to very good decisions because of that.
So again, thank you, and I'll turn it over to Nick.
Thank you, Comptroller. Thank you,
Chairman Curtis, Chairman Ervin, Vice Chair
Lee, and the members of the joint committee here today.
I'm pleased to present to you on the city's timekeeping
payroll system efforts so far. We've got slides on the
screen I'll go through. Everyone should have a written report.
There's a seven-page report that has great detail on
everything that we're going to go through on the slides, and then I'll
cover
that through a presentation here, and then we'll have questions and answers.
Let's see here.
It was supposed to be able to move the slides forward.
There we go.
I'll do it for you.
Could you go back one slide? Do you think
we've...
Here we go.
There we go. Department of Technology will have the technology in order for today.
So,
I'm going to start with
the foundations of where this effort came from in the first place.
The city engaged Gartner, which is a global IT
consultancy, some years back to do a full
assessment of the citywide technology situation.
And key findings that came out of that engagement were,
of course, legacy old systems that were creating risk
for the city. We had business processes that were
varied, departments doing things in different ways, a lot of manual
workflows, fragmented systems, outdated
platforms. We didn't have a unified technology
strategy. Out of that effort, ERP became a
priority because-The main systems that
city employees use for everyday work were all outdated and need to be
upgraded. Payroll, human resources, finance, procurement,
budgeting.
And modernizing these was going to be more than just
software. That's a theme we'll hear throughout today.
The technology and software is critical, but the modernization
isn't just putting our old way of doing business into a new technology.
The key conclusions of that assessment were that in order to
have that successful implementation, we needed to put that
strong governance in place,
align our departments, not just technology, but all our operational
departments that do this work together, standardize the
processes we use for payroll, for time attendance, and all the other activities,
coordinate everyone, and put a phased and disciplined approach
together.
Move to the next slide, please.
That became the backbone of the new Department of Technology and Innovation.
The technology assessment that was conducted led to these six work
streams that became the core of what we began doing when this department
started to move ERP forward, to maintain all city
operations, and to drive innovation across the city.
So I'm just going to cover these in short.
We built a transformation office that put governance and program
management at the forefront so that when we would build technology, it
would align with the best practice for the city operationally.
Change management's huge.
If a lot of technology teams will build things and people don't
adopt them, people don't use them, it requires a
disciplined approach to change management to support the adoption
citywide so that we actually get the benefits of these technologies.
We focus on digital services. That's residents are more and more going
to expect a digital component of requesting a service or receiving a
service. There's a lot of work that we do around making that
easier for people,
and we have to continue doing that work.
Data and analytics, core component. The data is everything.
It's the lifeblood of our organization to be able to have an
efficient, cost-effective operation.
And then business capabilities, that's really what the ERP
system was built for, is improving those.
And then finally, internal capabilities. Really want to stress this.
Building up our internal staff from going
from about 50 folks who came from the
old Department of Assets and Information and Services,
we revamped the entire structure, job
descriptions and everything for those folks.
We then have doubled that staff,
and we're still increasing our staff to get up to our full budgeted FTE
all at the same time while building this foundation for the ERP
system. Could you move to the next slide, please?
Back one.
Almost there. Right in between. There we go.
Time and attendance. So I'm going to cover some of the
activities that we've done to date.
Over last year and this year, DTI has worked to
conduct over 23 workshops, in-depth workshops
across city agencies, interviewed 29 subject
matter experts for all of the very
sometimes esoteric and sometimes really deeply technical,
the processes that
are the backbone of city operations, all with the eye to
streamlining them and making them modern.
We engaged over 15 departments,
and we've also, by upgrading our current ERP
system and supporting technologies, we're getting $1.6
million in annual savings
from those efforts.
We did that upgrade under budget. It's one of the first things that we did as
a department. If you're going to do a major operation on someone,
you've got to stabilize the patient first, and that's what we had to do with our
technologies even before we bring in a new ERP system.
We had to stabilize our current ERP system.
And that effort is producing cost savings already.
We issued an RFP for a system implementer
for the time and attendance portion that we're working on now
in January.
And we are,
in the second quarter of this year, estimating toward a contract award
to begin that work.
And could you move to the next slide, please?
Here I'm talking about our phased approach to
ERP.
Across global industries, large
organizations, governments of our size and the like,
this work has to be phased. There's no other way to do it.
And so time and attendance has been put at the forefront because of the
cost savings that are associated with that.
And
we're working in parallel. This isn't a sequential one and then the other.
So as time and attendance moves into our delivery phase
and we get ready to deploy software, we're already in development of
the technical specifications, so that we can issue an
RFP for the remaining modules of our ERP system.
Slide, please.
Now I'm going to talk about cost savings, because
while we knew ERP systems take time, they take time for
all organizations, we couldn't wait to find
savings to be able to help reduce city spending.
And so DTI, starting with 2024 baselines,
the budget that we started with, the budget that we inherited and started with,
we immediately began to identify efficiencies and reductions.
And in 2025, we achieved over $6 million
with specific lines that we reducedFewer licenses
for software by consolidating and looking for
efficiencies and changes in habits.
Less professional services, adapting to the changes
in the way that we use technology. And then
telecommunications consolidations.
Those same lines, we then expanded those cost savings,
and when you look at '25 and '26 together,
we're projecting to have $15 million in reduction in
spending, that spending was there in '24, and it's now
reduced by that much. All that's reflected in our operations
budget to save the city money immediately before we
achieve more savings through ERP.
Could you move to the next slide?
Now, here is a compilation of milestones that we've completed
over the last few years, both in ERP and in our
modernization.
Like I like to say,
DTI is not going to be a department, we're not going to be the cobbler that has no
shoes. So one of the first things that we did was we deployed
modern digital technology systems for IT requests.
And so that city agencies can request their help from
us through a modern system and then track progress.
We pushed that out right away. We have,
like I was saying earlier, upgraded our current ERP
system, which was a major project.
We've also began a campaign to digitize
paper processes across the city. We began that with Power Apps
in 2024, and we continue to find paper
and email-based workflows and get them into a modern system so that people
can do their job easier and find their data faster.
In August of '25,
is when we really got
a lot of our workshops underway with departments to build the
RFP for time and attendance. Again, in January, we published
that RFP, and we're estimating a Q2
contract award.
Could you go to the next slide, please?
And this just puts this out on a timeline so you can take a look at the history of
our department and the work that we've achieved, both through implementing
the technology assessment that was completed right before our department
started and all the subsequent modernizations and
activities that came out of that work.
And so I've mentioned a lot of this already, but just to put
it into a timeline format, we implement all of the
recommendations, or we implement many of the recommendations of the assessment.
We launch our self-service platform, upgrade our ERP, conduct
workshops, more workshops, SME interviews,
and then we get into the technical specification and writing.
Now, I'm going to stress this. These ERP projects
have, unfortunately, too high of a failure rate.
They're known for going over budget and for taking longer than
expected,
and to having success problems. And with large,
complicated projects, getting the
solicitation right to the implementer you're going to bring
on is a highly recommended best practice, which is
something that we have been able to
get right from the beginning, so that when we get ready to deploy and bring in
very expensive professional services technology folks, that
we're ready for them and that they're ready to deliver for Chicago.
Could you go to the next slide, please?
And here we have a couple of charts to show in a
simple format
with the RFP specifically for time and
attendance and payroll,
what has been the progress to date and when have we done it, spending the
last year
bringing on our program management firm, doing these workshops that I
was mentioning earlier. And if you go to the next slide, that's where I
have what's coming next. What's the timeline?
So we're projecting to do three
cohorts of departments as we go live with the new time,
attendance, and scheduling system.
And we're anticipating projecting in January, we roll out the
first cohort, all using new time and attendance system
to clock in, clock out for their paychecks.
A second cohort in March, and a third cohort in April, which will round
out all city departments to be in the new system.
That is
our best information on when we think that we'll be rolling out time and
attendance. And with that, that ends my presentation.
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you, Commissioner.
I just got one question. Do you have a list of,
or could you name the list of the 15 departments
that
you engaged?
Absolutely. So what I can do is I can tell you
that it includes human resources,
finance,
budget,
procurement,
and this continues on another page here.
The police department, the fire department,
OEMC,
law, transportation, streets and sand,
2FM. Now, I can get through the chair others, but those are the ones I have
right here.
Okay. Great. Any questions from the committee?
Vice Chair Lee.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Comptroller Belsky, and
are you commissioner? You are commissioner, aren't you?
Commissioner, CIO. I go by both.
Like how to address you properly. CIO
Lucius. We'll try that on for size.
Thanks so much for being here. I know that a new ERP system
for an entity as large and as complicated
andAs
entrenched in tradition, we'll say
how difficult that is and what a big challenge that is, and I'm happy to hear
of some of the progress that's already been made.
Obviously, sitting on this side of the room, we're looking for
change as quickly as possible, and I can absolutely accept that
we have to do it the right way
so that we don't get it wrong for the long term.
This is hopefully something that we do once, and then we maintain
it versus investing all the time and effort.
From your perspective now with what's in front of you for
this year,
what are the biggest priority areas for you?
For ERP or for-
For ERP.
Yeah.
Not for timekeeping. I'll-
Yeah
... we'll do that separate.
I think the biggest priority for me is going to be that on the
technology side, these systems can really do
pretty much... They can do it the modern way, and they're extensible to do it lots
of different ways. So it becomes less about what is the tech going to
do, and it's going to become more about getting all of our
departments to do it the same way and work with
our labor agreements and our city policies.
I think that
having a governance model over the city of, "This is
how we're going to use the system, this is how
scheduling works, this is how salaried workers log in, this
is how hourly workers log in." Those policies, that
change management, getting the departments on board, training their staff,
that's the biggest priority. And we're going to start right away
by instead of building this thing and then dropping on
folks towards the end,
is start building it immediately and start running trials
with different teams. That's actually part of the cohort-based
rollout. So that as we get
people used to signing in a different way,
that we get
leaders and influencers in different city departments that can then go and help
some of our others. Because we have everything from office workers to
trades to police officers to
transportation and sanitation workers and everybody.
These groups have different ways of showing up for work and reporting for duty.
And so the biggest priority is
getting to all those different factions within the city and getting them on
board, and bringing them along and seeing how they're different, but making sure
that we don't change how we do this for everyone.
It's got to be one single way of doing this.
Is there...
I'm not trying to have you call out
individual departments. But I know the change management piece of it's going to be
massive, right? That you're changing the way people are accustomed to
operating day to day.
I hadn't given as much thought to how current labor
contracts would
impact this process. What are some of the challenges with the
existing agreements with some of the various departments and
unions?
I think that I've seen less
of challenges within the agreements and more of just
needing to bring people along.
Because,
and to be fair, a big part of the coming months is going to
be getting down to those details of where are there
things in the agreements that we have to make sure we bake into the system
or sit at the table and find ways to work around?
Because we certainly don't want to just take the status quo and throw
it into a system.
But I think that our early analysis shows that it's
really
the communication and stakeholder outreach that helps people know, "Okay, this
is coming." I think everybody wants to move into
something new, and there's broad agreement that doing things the way that it
is has got to change. So we're really pleased there that with all our department
outreach, all our stakeholder outreach,
I've just got folks saying, "When?" No one's saying, "Oh, no."
Everyone's saying, "When?"
But there's going to be a lot in the details that we have to work out
in short order.
Yeah. I mean, I would just add to that, we have
in different departments, different
unions, and when you talk about time and
attendance, you have to talk about the policy
for clocking in, clocking out. This is how you manage overtime, as
you know, has been an issue. So,
we've been
trying to test different technologies for timekeeping that make
it easier for people to sign in, sign
out. We're
testing at Department of Aviation, a web-based where you can
from your desktop or handheld device
clock in.
We also have various biometric and facial
recognition clocks and then the old just swipe in, swipe out.
And I think the goal
working with the ERP is to get to a
singular technology and have a policy
behind it that applies to all departments,
and regardless of whether you're organized labor or not.
From the standpoint of the city,
excessive overtime, if you don't know
it, you can't manage it. And you can also have kind of
just leakage in payment, right, if you're
not fully accurate when people are clocking in.
So I think these things go hand in hand, and I would hope
that at the end of the day, if the city can save money and
be in a better financial position, that's good for everybody.
Organized labor, the residents, us, the council.
So that's kind of the overarching goal.
Yeah. No, thank you for that. And I'm glad to hear that you're not getting
pushback
on the modernization. I
think one of the fears that I had was when people talk about
technology and-Getting up to speed on things,
and I don't know how much AI is involved in what we're
doing, but I think that there could be a natural fear
for your job at the end of the day. And I think the reality is that this
modernization project with this ERP is actually just going to make us
operate so much more efficiently that we'll be able to get more done for the people
of the city of Chicago.
We hear it at the ward level,
in our offices, and when people call us about how long processes take and how long
it takes to pull records or find something where there's still paper
processes. So,
I think continuing to focus on that work's going to be really important.
Challenge-wise,
other than the change management piece of it, it seems like we're
moving as quickly as we can. What are the major milestones for you for this year?
A big one is
a month into the effort. So when we have a
system implementer firm going,
that'll be a major
milestone and also a
kickstart to the system, because there's going to be a significant number of
consultants that are across the city enterprise
getting us ready to deploy this software.
And so that first month is going to be really important
to finalize and align on our plan of
action
one month into the engagement so that we can then start deploying
test softwares.
And then
post that first month,
every month all the way up till the end of the year,
December 31st, is against the clock for
getting ready for a cohort of departments to go in January.
So it's going to be a monthly
cadence of push, test, push, test, push,
test,
so that when we go live with that first cohort, these
things always, they're never 100% ready.
I've never seen a deployment.
Famously, the iPhone went live, and it
barely worked when they had that session. It's just how these things always go.
And so to have it as far as possible so that we can immediately
start working on fixes and enhancements,
those are the big milestones
for this year.
Great. Thank you.
Comptroller Belsky, on time and attendance,
how many
departments are actually
on electronic
time and attendance? I'm sorry for my ignorance on this.
You mean the web-based?
The web-based, yeah.
So at this point, it's the Department of Aviations who are being
tested, and the mayor's office.
And that's it for this currently? Are we ramping up to do
more this year?
So the idea of testing it is to
test the efficacy of it, and if we find that it's working,
then we would expand it out. And anything we would do
would integrate with the new ERP
system, whatever technology we settle on.
We have some time clocks that we can't even
service because the parts aren't there anymore, right?
They're antiquated. So we've got to move to a more
modern system, and so that's what we're--
Phil
and his group are always kind of trying to research and stay ahead of the curve,
and
I've been pretty strong on saying that this whole
overtime management, we need to figure out a way to do
that, and the best way to do that is just having accurate and
consistent expectations of how people sign in.
So is the Department of Aviation and the mayor's office
sort of pilot, if you will, is that for this year?
Or what's the time period that you're going to be evaluating?
Let me defer to Filberto on that.
Let's see.
Hello. It's ongoing right now. We've been doing it this year.
We started late last year. It's ongoing, and what we noticed going
through this whole process is we just don't need
fixed clocks and people waiting in line to punch in, punch out.
So this desktop solution, someone logs in with their
credentials at their location and basically can punch in and
punch out at the end of the day. And so far, we haven't
noticed any issues, and it's feeding through the system,
deducting any personal time, vacation, sick time, and it's
all flowing through correctly. And like Comptroller Belsky
stated,
we're working where it can also
work with the ERP, so it would be seamless.
But so far, so good.
So far, so good. And the time period that, when does this sort of...
I know you're going to keep doing it, but the fact that this is a pilot and you're
evaluating it, I'm just looking for at what point do you stop to
look at the data and then have that feed into, "Here's what we would do
differently for the next phase of deployment with other departments."
You know what? We will provide that through the chair.
Yeah, that'd be great.
What you're looking for is what's the plan over time?
Once we perfect this technology,
aviation, does it go to public work? Whatever.
So-
Aviation's huge. I know how big aviation is.
Yeah.
You're not testing it on some small department.
I think you've got, the mayor's office is a lot smaller than the-
Yeah
... Department of Aviation. So I think you've got a good big and small size.
Obviously, we're, again, looking for as much of it to be
deployed as quickly as possible, but also making sure that we're doing this the
right way. So,
excited for the progress, because I know that,
again, it's just going to make us more efficient as a government.The end of the
day. That's all I've got, Chair. Thank you.
We will get to you-
Thank you. And I just want to add that in that first month, you know I was talking
about-
Mm-hmm
... that milestone, that first month, we will absolutely be
looking at the time clocks. And
so within a month, we will be able to take everything finance is doing, look
at the new system, and then be able to align on a plan
for how to meet those pilots with the new system.
All right. Thank you.
Point of information.
Oh, hold on. Let me recognize Alders
Quinn, Harris, and Villegas for the purposes of
quorum.
Chairman?
Thank you. Referring to the time clock.
So
we're speaking of the old ones, not the biometrics,
the older time clocks with the
cards. We still have those?
Yes.
How many more departments are still using...?
I think it says we have
780
biometric hand clocks used throughout the city.
So those are where you swipe and then you put your hand on it.
Mm-hmm.
So there's 780 of those active.
There's been a lot of service requests since 2020.
A lot of them are past their useful life.
So that's why we're embarking on
deploying this new technology. We don't want to deploy it citywide until we know
that it's effective. But the plan is to get away from
these,
what I would call
hardware type.
Yeah. And
what would we take, let's say looking at '25 and '26, you're
looking at saving about, what, 15 million
maybe? Would you
take
funds out of that to go into the
biometrics
for more departments or-
The savings-
... do we play with-
Yeah.
The savings from in
DTI's budget at this point,
we each have a separate budget.
Money's fungible, but it would have to be specifically budgeted for that
purpose. So I think whatever
savings inure to the benefit of DTI will be used
to reduce their costs. But certainly, going
into next year's budget,
if there are substantial savings there so their budget's lower,
we can budget to expand what we're doing.
All right. Tim?
Just real quickly, have we selected a
contractor or software at this point?
Are we still in that phase still?
We have a software
picked.
We haven't finalized the contract because as soon as we do, we
have to start paying for licenses.
So I talked with a lot of cities who, some have
done that and then had to spend a significant amount of money on, it's like paying
property taxes on undeveloped property.
And so we're at the point where we know what we're doing,
but we're phasing the purchases of the licenses so that we don't do
that.
Can you disclose who that party is?
I think because the contract isn't signed, that
I'm under advisement not to name a public-
That's fine.
Yeah.
No, that's fine. And one question, and this is something that Chairman Villegas
always talks about, this savings,
and I'm sure he's going to touch on this.
How does this savings come about? We talk about, I think
he's said as high as 30, 40 million or even
higher. The accountant in me is trying to figure out,
where is this savings coming from,
from bringing forth a new time and attendance
system?
Sure. So
some of this was identified in order to put this at the
top of the order, right? We're doing time and attendance first because of savings.
The one area is that there's a lot of
money that the city spends on just on timekeeping activities.
So this is an employee
puts in, "I'm sick," "I'm on vacation," or "I forgot to
swipe" or whatever it is, and there's people that have to go in and manually
work with the current system in order to put that...
Sometimes it's data entry from one system to another.
In our new system, that will all happen between the staff and the
manager, right? The staff will just go in, say, "Vacation, sick,"
and then the manager approves it, and then it's reflected in their pay.
So there's no longer that need to do that dual entry.
And then another significant area is in
just the pay to employees through tighter
management of people's time.
Whenever you have, if people are
clocking in on one device and then it
gets entered in another device or however departments are checking
that people are where they say they are, the new system will provide
a tighter and more accountable way that someone was where they said they were,
which will provide more accurate pay.
And so things like just salaries and hourly wages, but also
overtime, will be more accurate. And with more accuracy is
expected to come savings.
Okay. Thank you. I also want to recognize Alderman Hall,
purposes of quorum. Any other questions?
Are you up, Guy?
Go ahead, Chairman.
Thank you. Thank you Chairman Curtis and Irvin.
So-The time and attendance,
we have a selected vendor
Yeah, for the software that we're going to use.
We also already have a implementer as well on contract, correct?
That contract is in finalization.
Okay. So I think that's the problem that we're having around
the finalization and time to get things going.
We're facing a deficit and
we're not counting on you to find an $800 million solution,
but
every
dollar we can save now just helps us out later.
And so the fact that procurement's taking a long time, you take into account
the ERP system that was negotiated for two years and
then did not come to an agreement, and the ERP system now that's being
negotiated hasn't come to a final contract
yet. You're talking three years of discussions around an ERP
system. During that time,
under the Lori Lightfoot administration, there was a time and attendance vendor
that was selected.
Comptroller Belsky's predecessor canceled that contract because
there was ERP that had time and attendance in it.
I say all that to say that there's millions of dollars of savings in the
utilization of technology in order to deliver
services for the city.
We don't manufacture or sell widgets. We provide a service.
Tech serves as an opportunity to provide savings and efficiencies.
We need your department, procurement, comptroller, everybody to be rowing in the
same direction to get a sense of urgency into finalizing the
contracts. Three years
is what we've been talking around time and attendance. Four years.
ERP system,
three years.
Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?
What can we do to help expedite
this? Because this body provided resources in the
form of the capital bill four years ago, $300 million to
modernize it. We put forward the mechanism in the Gardner
report to put a pathway for technology, and
we keep talking about it. And so I think we're kind of tired
of talking about it, only because
we don't want to go back to the taxpayers
to say, "Hey, we haven't done anything.
We need more revenue." We got to
do a good job internally before we
start asking for it externally. So can you give us any timeline as to when this is
going to be finalized? I know that there's a procurement process,
but damn, three years is a long time.
Sure.
Long time. So we need some definitive dates as to when
are things going to be completed and not just continue to talk about the
vendor hasn't been selected, we're still negotiating. Something needs to happen.
Thank you, Alderman.
Very important questions. I want
to highlight that there's a seven-page report
that walks through the last three years,
with a lot of detail on essentially...
I hear you that from a procurement point of view,
the accuracy of the time that things have been in
procurement.
At the same time, if we had procured time and attendance
licenses a year ago, we would have not had
a plan to be using them. Here's what we have done over the
last year, two years, to be ready for those licenses.
Okay.
So I'll go off the slides rather than the report.
Oh.
The report, I would say to take a look at it for sure, the report.
But on the slides, let's go to page three.
Page three.
Yeah. It says, "Time and attendance efforts 25 to 26" at the top.
So
after doing a procurement that was completed to bring in a
program management firm to bring much needed resources to run
these workshops, we ran 23 workshops
across the city. We interviewed 29 subject matter
experts in really deep dives.
We engaged over 15 city departments,
all aimed at writing a very highly technical,
highly detailed scope of work for an implementer
to actually come in and configure those time and attendance licenses.
I was making a point earlier, it's like you can
buy property and start paying property taxes and want to build a
building, but you can't build a building until you have plans.
And so what we were going to build
had to come from all of these intensive
workshops and preparations and interviews with department experts.
So if we didn't do that,
we would be turning on a time and attendance system that wouldn't result
in savings because it would not fit what the city's
operations are. And so
some of that that's in the report here goes into-
No, here, Nick, I understand it. So, or Commissioner,
remember, there was a contract that was put forward
in 2022, 2023. A vendor was selected.
So
during that time when
there would've been the
process of vetting the consultant, you would've thought this
would have been already taken place.
So during that time, we were also doing a procurement to
bring... So at this time, so let's go to
2024, January 1st was the beginning of DTI.
We had
50 staff inherited from the other department who all had to go
through a full reorganization, apply for five different
roles, be interviewed by the very small...
So we spent the entire year doing a reorganizationAnd that's a staff
of 50 something when
140 is the smallest that
Gartner said that we could run the city with.
And so
while we're doing that reorganization, we're also doing a
procurement to bring on a program manager for ERP
because we can't wait, right? We can't wait for building a
department to start doing ERP. And that
procurement to bring in a program manager to do these
workshops went live in
February of '25,
which then we were immediately able to start working with them, and
by spring we have our workshops going.
And then we're heavy in workshops in summer of 2025 to
get the RFP prepared for the fall and to get out in the street.
So what I'm hearing
is 2024, the department's reconstituted. You're staffing up.
2025 now is when you feel you have enough staff in accordance with the Gartner
recommendation. Is that correct?
Well,
no, I'm saying,
yes, and that
even in '25, we need to bring in a
vendor to do this.
Mm-hmm.
And so from the beginning, we're procuring a vendor
to come in for program management support. So we immediately started that activity.
Right. So they
will offset the shortage of employees-
Exactly
... in order to incorporate. Okay.
So
are we doing that also with the ERP as well?
Yes.
So right now we have a project manager for ERP plus time and
attendance?
Yes.
Okay. That being said, when can we anticipate and
realize savings?
2027. As soon as time and attendance goes
live and we no longer need
time
keeping
efforts, and we
can start having accurate pay.
Okay. So commissioner-
Oh, and I'm sorry,
we already have 15 million in savings from ERP and other related
upgrades.
Got you. And I know that you, despite not having a system in
place, have saved about six to eight million over the
course. So I appreciate because you're getting the message.
For some reason, other departments aren't getting the message around the sense of
urgency. And so whether it's procurement, whatever department, we
need to get things finalized so that way we can give you the necessary
tools, the Comptroller the necessary tools to be successful, which ultimately
makes the taxpayer successful. So all I would ask is that if you need
us to help push, we need to know because the fact that procurement
continues to
not make a decision, it's been three years, is a problem. It's a problem.
And I'm not asking you to answer that, I'm just making a comment that we need to do
something here. So thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Comptroller and Commissioner.
And we look forward to continue working with you because you ultimately play a key
role in what we're trying to accomplish, is to try to figure out how to
be efficient so that way, as a last resort,
revenue is being requested from taxpayers in the city of Chicago.
Yeah. One thing I would just, in response to your
comments about timing and implementers.
The GFOA, the Government Finance Officers
Association, has these best practices with respect to technology,
and they have a whole group that studies ERP.
And what they would tell you is that the biggest
reason these systems fail
is because there's not outreach to departments and
workshops to get input from the people that are actually doing the
job, right? And that takes time, and Nick's done a really good job
in getting
these people together. As you said, the more
detailed you can write this RFP,
and the respondent then comes in not having to do
that work. They-
Yeah
... it's been done, right? And then the implementer part of it is
that people always complain about the number of governments in
Illinois.
The flip side to that is when you have a separate school district, they're
focused on education, right? They're not competing with the city's
thoughts about education. They're focused on education or parks.
And having an implementer, you got to remember, this department
gets barraged. I know I bug him about
all sorts of stuff where we need technology all the time.
And if he has to stop and start on
ERP because I'm bugging him about technology
for parking enforcement, it's not going to get done.
Yeah. Well-
And so having this like-
No, and I appreciate that, and I appreciate the fact that we are leveraging the
other professionals in the sector to be a PMO because that's how you,
for the
task that's in place right now, trying to solve for that, is a
smart move. I agree with you. It's just
for some reason, we're not at that point where we've been talking about time and
attendance, and those are real dollars that can be saved.
And since I've been talking about it, we're talking four years.
On the low end, you're talking 120 million to 160 million in savings that we have
just left on the table because of our inability to act.
And so that's what's frustrating to me, is that if we were flush with
cash, maybe that's a different topic.
Last year was a billion, this year we're projecting 800 million, and
we have this huge pension liability.
And so the more that we can continue to chip away at it
just makes it easier for us. So that's what my issue is, so-
Absolutely
... thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Commissioner and Comptroller.
Thank you. Alderman Gutierrez.
Thank you, Chairman. Thank you so much for the presentation and all the
work towards theseJust wanted to ask if there's been any
consideration about having a timekeeping system for ward
offices. Because when I started as an alderman, I was just surprised that the
city didn't have anything like that.
I was coming from the county, where I was a district director, and I was used to
always clock in and clock out.
And that way also, if you were requesting time off, sick time, personal time off,
vacation, you can easily go to the system, request the time
off with the weeks in advance that you had to ask for them, and then you
accrue your time. You were able to see and manage, like I'm taking
vacation in July, so by that time I have this amount of hours.
So you were able to maneuver your hours and your time, getting
approval, of course, with the commissioner at that time, and then you can take that
time off. So is there any
consideration about having a system like that for our offices?
Because I could imagine we all 50 offices do it in a different
way. Of course, we track those hours in-house, but I think it
would be helpful for us to also have a system from the city for employees
to clock in, clock out, and also when it's election time, if there's anything, we
can always go back and say they were on government time, they were not.
So for more ethic purposes, that I think our city needs, and
especially our constituents need to know if the staffers
were working at that time or not for any confusion, just to
make it clear, but also for our staffers to make it easier when
requesting time off.
Thank you.
Yeah. I would
might ask Phil to chime in, but what you're saying makes perfect sense to me is
that legislative branch is part of government, just
like the Department of Aviation's part of government.
If we're able to track time and attendance in
these other facilities, we should be able to do it in ward offices.
What I mentioned before is we're trying to move to a uniform
process that's not so hardware intensive, where you have
requirements for replacing parts and things like that.
If we do a desktop-based
application,
it seems to me it would be pretty easy to roll out to ward
offices. I would just ask my staff, has there been some
discussion on-
Well,
all in all, we're just trying to find one solution for the whole city,
and I do understand. I know it's paper for the wards, and
actually it goes through the city clerks for processing, so I do understand that.
But if we do work on one solution for the whole city, then yes,
why not? Like the Comptroller Belsky stated, we could
look into a desktop solution where someone logs on
and punches in and punches out and feeds in through the payroll system.
Okay. Thank you.
I mean, if there's something we can try to find to do in the interim, we'll be
happy to talk about it.
Yeah, no. Thank you so much. I would appreciate if there's any research about that
and willing to also add our office.
Not sure if my colleagues will be
okay with it, but I think it will be really useful and it's
needed for our staffers. So, thank you.
Thank you, Alderman. Any other questions?
Alderman Waguespack.
Thank you, Chairman. Just had a couple of quick questions.
Appreciate you both being here and walking us through this.
And if I missed something at the beginning of it, is
HR in attendance
directly here?
Anyone from HR.
Okay.
So it seems that
part of this is going to require HR to carry a heavy load on this.
It's unfortunate they're not here today because I think I'd-- But maybe you two can
answer this. There's checklists that have to be done.
There's all these agreements which you spoke to, the labor
agreements. How are they working through this in terms of
meeting the needs of your staff, meeting the needs
of the breakdown of how this is going to progress?
And,
I don't know if you could speak to that a little bit more, knowing that they're not
here to address that.
I'm happy to talk about that, Alderman.
So,
because the-- Yeah, it's great you have the screen up.
Because first the phase two
has HR directly, they're going to be implementing their
module for how they hire, how they
provide
services, accommodations, the entire employee life cycle.
Commissioner Blakemore is
very connected to this effort. We talk weekly,
and sometimes more often than that,
for number one, full visibility into all the aspects
of time and attendance that are in finance,
so that we're fully connected. And then also there are HR
policy considerations involved with time and attendance
that we're having those conversations with DHR around right now.
And so,
as we implement the time and attendance part of
ERP, there's a backbone of HR that's in that,
and we've got to have employee names, profiles,
and it's actually starting the migration of HR over to the new
system. So they're fully involved in this, and have been from the
start.
Just on that particular note, that sounds like she's doing the work.
So can she make these decisions unilaterally when you're having your
discussions, or is it rulemaking unilaterally by
DHR, or does she have to come back to council and say,
for instance, we need to change a labor agreement?
I mean, everything's going to depend on whatever the change
is. I mean, there's changes in
department swiping policy, citywide policies, labor
agreements. They all require a different set of stakeholders.
I would think she would be best to answer that.
I don't know if you have any-
I mean, I would think
corporation council could
probably answer the question about-Can she
make unilateral decisions? I would say this, that what Nick described
to you is not a willy-nilly thing. We meet
every two weeks, HR, myself, budget, and
Nick, to talk about-
Sounds like fun
...
the
progress of this and provide input.
Our latest discussion was about,
we have several initiatives like back to work, trying to get people back
to work that are injured, but also
the timekeeping and
making sure that there's a uniform policy that's
communicated out for timekeeping.
Yeah.
And the idea is to have,
again, one system, but also have a written policy
that commissioners enforce. Like this is how and when you
need to swipe in, this is vacation policies, all of those sorts of
things. So they're very much embedded in this.
Okay.
Switching over to the budget, on page
four, so you have the 2025 actual
savings. Was there
a column for 2024 that you could provide at
some point, maybe to add on to that to show
what it looked like before within your actual budget?
So, yes, I can answer that. The 2024 was the
first DTI budget, so that's our baseline.
So the '24 number would be, yeah, that's it.
The '24 number would be zero.
Okay.
That's what we spent, and then each savings year after that.
Okay.
And then finally,
yesterday,
we had a meeting. CPO was there, talked
about the RFP process for
basically looking at the technology contract for
gunshot detection.
But in general, basically said any technology contract takes 18 to
24 months, and in your presentation,
you talked about basically starting, was it in January?
And then we'll have this thing full in by June,
maybe end of June. So
what's the difference between what she's saying
takes up to 24 months, and here we're talking about
six months, because that's a huge discrepancy.
And for her to stand up there yesterday and say,
"We can't do any of this because it's 24 months," it just seems
kind of defies
credibility in terms of one commissioner saying
one thing and one presentation today that is very well
outlined as opposed to the vagueness that we received yesterday.
So I don't know if you can address that. Why the massive difference?
Alderman, yes, I can address that.
What you're seeing there is in the
timeline from
RFP to
estimated when
we're going to have a contract. That's so condensed in this one
because of the year plus worth of planning
work. So you can do these in different ways, and I would agree that
technology procurements, in my experience, have always taken over a year,
and into two years is not only too
often typical, but I've seen them take longer.
And so what we've done with this one is put a
lot of what you might see after an RFP
into the pre-RFP part so that we could be tight, right?
So we wanted to limit the variation in proposals.
We wanted to
do our homework first,
so that when we got... And we were benefiting from
the previous technology assessment that Gartner did that helped
us be able to do it this way. So I'd say that what
you see here today, I appreciate the comments on it because
I feel like we've done a really good job here at the end, but it was
because of really years' worth of planning work to get to today.
Yeah, I think, I understood both of you two when you were speaking to that,
looking at the number of meetings that you held.
I know it's no joke, but that's a lot of meetings.
So I do appreciate that. I think what we heard yesterday was
more indicative of what seems to be the issue, and that was a
technology contract too that I think many of us have been waiting for well
over two and a half years, and that technology exists.
So,
it's not for you to speak to that, but it's kind of a
mind-boggling
difference in terms of percentage of time that it takes for the two.
But I know exactly where the two of you are coming from on that, so thank you for
the answer.
Thank you, Chairman. That's all I had.
Thank you, Alderman.
Any more questions, comments?
Well,
we want to thank Department of Finance for coming down.
Our controller,
thank you so much. Nick, our CIO.
Our procurement officer also,
thank you all for coming down and sharing this.
Hopefully,
we move forward together. If there's no further business
before this committee, can I get a motion?
So moved by Vice Chair Mosley.
All in favor, say "Aye."
Aye.
Any opposed?
Aye, the ayes have it. So our subject matter hearing is now
duly concluded. Thank you.
Three years.
What?
Thank you.
Thank
you.