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Session 1312, Minutes Page 6 July 26, 1982 more thoroughly. Mayor Mooney concurred that the decision should be temporarily postponed. Mrs. Metcalfe said the basic question was whether the City was better off spending an additional $60,000 (the total cost was approximately $98,000, but $35,000 was al- ready budgeted) for another TI system, with its limitations, or spend a larger amount for a totally new system. Ms Stepanek said growth limitations would be greatly relieved with the recommended system, and in fact, there was growth capa- city in the combination. What would be needed was careful planning to be certain the right applications were run on the proper computer. The new system will have about one-third of its capacity available for expansion. Mr. Ollendorff pointed out that the data bases will not get appreciably larger. Mr. Levy asked where the one-third figure came from. Ms Stepanek said that was her estimation of what could be added to the systems, and that TI's claims were not used in the estimate but her own expertise and experience as a hardware planner. Responding to Mrs. Metcalfe, Ms Stepanek said that additional on-line programs could be added, using existing data bases for the system recommended. Mr. Ollen- dorff said there was no body of information that needed to be added to the data base at this time, although there will undoubtedly be more applications. Mrs. Met- calfe asked if there were any departments that were not on the computer that should be, and Mr. Ollendorff said he knew of none in terms of the usual municipal appli- cations. Mrs. Metcalfe then asked whether the City should be doing all of the things it was doing on computers. Mr. Ollendorff said very careful thought had been given to the applications that were added. He was sure that purchasing the new system would result in actual dollar savings. He said personnel had been re- duced but more usable data had been collected than ever before. Mrs. Metcalfe said a projected savings figure had been given to the Council some time ago, but nothing had been received lately, and in fact there were transfers of funds for unexpected computer expenses. Mr. Ollendorff said that was because the City needed the ser- vices of McAuto longer than it planned. Mrs. Metcalfe asked for a comparison of the burden on the budget prior to the computer conversion and afterward, for the same work done. Mr. Ollendorff said the City was well ahead as far as expenses were concerned, even though it took six months longer to get everything planned on the computer. Mr. McPhail said a year of the services of McAuto cost $120,000 plus $35,000 for outside consultants to run the system, or a total of $155,000. Mrs. Metcalfe said she felt it would be very useful to the Council to have a written re- port which gave a simple comparison of what has been spent on the computer in the last two years, including hardware and other expenses, versus what would have been spent to have this done for the City by McAuto, with the understanding that there was an inflation factor which wasn't included. Mr. Ollendorff said he would give the Council the projections he made two years ago so that they could see the admin- istration has exceeded every one of them. _ Mr. Schoomer asked if there was a need for an immediate decision. Mr. McPhail said there was a 90-day lead time, once the equipment was ordered. He noted there had been problems for some time, and that the system was often overloaded, resulting in very slow response and down time, or "crashing." Mr. Ollendorff said he would like very much to move ahead on this matter. Mr. Levy asked if the amount of degrading was such that a two to four week period