IRVINE : City Weighs Role in Technology Center

The city is poised to become the first in Orange County to attempt the creation of a regional technology center in partnership with a private company.

Council members approved a one-year trial partnership with Dallas-based Business Records Corp. this week to shore up the city’s badly outdated computer services department and explore the proposed profit-making opportunity. After years of staff reductions, the city has an estimated 1,000 hours of backlogged service requests and only four employees in the department.

The long-term success of the enterprise depends on how many Southern California cities and agencies eventually contract with the proposed technology center for computing services.

Business Records Corp formed a regional health care technology center two years ago at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center that has proved financially successful, according to George Tamas, vice president of business development for the company.

Despite warnings from some residents that the city could be held liable by dissatisfied customers, the council unanimously approved a one-year contract to create the technology center at City Hall.

The deal requires the company to make a $705,000 investment in computer equipment and additional personnel during the first year. The city’s cost of operations is guaranteed not to rise above its current $887,000 level for the first year. If the city renews the contract, the annual cost would remain below that figure.

City Clerk Judy Vonada, who worked on the proposal during the past 15 months, called it “a unique entrepreneurial concept” that precluded competitive bidding procedures. Of four computer companies contacted by the city, Vonada said, Business Records Corp. was the only company to propose the idea of a regional technology center.