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Posted on 08/11/2004 9:12:23 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
San Jose's unfolding technology scandal grew even stickier Tuesday, with news of a criminal probe involving the city's former chief technology officer and the strongest indications yet that the controversy will boost the cost and delay the opening of the new City Hall.
City leaders sought to avoid public discussion of those negative developments, focusing their weekly council meeting on reforming city procedures following revelations of collusion and favoritism in the award of an $8 million contract to install Cisco Systems networking equipment in the new building.
But a different, more complicated scenario played out behind closed doors, with enormous implications for the $388 million City Hall project.
``The on-time, on-budget is not going to happen,'' said Councilman Chuck Reed of the new City Hall, which is scheduled to open its doors next spring. ``We're going to lose some time and we're going to lose some money. We don't know how much it will be yet.''
In response to questions from the Mercury News, San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis acknowledged that for a week his department's High Tech Crimes Unit has been conducting an extensive probe into possible electronic eavesdropping by Wandzia Grycz, the city's chief information officer who resigned under pressure Sunday.
E-mail snooping
Some city officials believe Grycz may have intercepted e-mails between City Auditor Gerald Silva and City Attorney Rick Doyle, who were conducting an investigation of irregularities surrounding the networking contract she had overseen. Davis said that he has been unable to substantiate any criminal ``intrusion.'' Investigators have, however, found a computer bug in the city's e-mail system that might allow such eavesdropping to occur, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
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*snrk*
I am on the electronic bid list for network equipment in the State of North Carolina. I have NEVER seen any competitor to Cisco mentioned as a potential product on the "Request for Bid".
I hear ya.. I been around the Valley quite a few years and have seen vendors come and go and mergers and buyouts galore.
Cisco is not the main issue here or their dominance in the networking arena.. altho SBC, who would have bid their own package, might diagree.
San Jose is in the midst of a "ethics" reforms movement in city government and just passed some new rules that deal with lobbyists who have run this city ragged the last few years with swetheart deals galore.
EFFECT ON LOBBYISTS REMAINS TO BE SEEN
By Mike Zapler
Mercury News
Lobbyists in San Jose will have to reveal much more about their efforts to influence city issues -- including political donations and meetings they've conducted with elected officials -- under an ordinance approved by the city council Tuesday night.
How much difference the ordinance will make in how business is conducted at City Hall remains to be seen. One prominent lobbyist predicted it would have little effect.
But proponents say the measure, spurred by a series of Mercury News editorials this year, will improve ``transparency'' at City Hall at a time when the lobbyist trade in San Jose appears to be in full bloom. The number of lobbyists has doubled in the past decade to more than 50, according to a recent count, and reform advocates say the measure will help the public evaluate lobbyists' influence by revealing their campaign contributions and other activities.
``I think clearly what we're trying to do here is follow the money,'' Councilwoman Pat Dando said. ``If someone has the potential for great gain financially, we need to'' focus on that.
lol.. The serpent has a new home be ing built, I see ;-)
Most of these companies have interlocking marketing agreements (buy your routers from us, get discounts on your caching and firewall boxes from companies Y and Z...). It is a chore to wade through all the marketing hype and determine actual, deliverable functionality, performance, reliability, and interoperability with total confidence...
When "pre-screening" a written specification, almost every one of those companies get eliminated priot to going to bid. It is very difficult for David to tackle Goliath, especially in Goliath's home town. I don't doubt that there are competitive products, but no one ever got fired for buying Cisco.
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