O.C. Moves to Ease Its Data Overload

With Orange County’s computer system nearing overload, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday grudgingly approved spending $5.8 million over three years to prevent data-processing delays.

With its action, the board hopes to avoid major computer problems during the annual preparation of property tax rolls.

Supervisors chastised county staff officials, including Dan Hatton, deputy chief executive and chief information officer, for not informing them that the county’s computer data storage was at the brink of capacity.

The board said it learned of the problem after a computer contractor working for the county bought a $6-million mainframe computer to handle his business with the county and other customers, and was now seeking lease payments to recover the cost.

Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. bought the large computer on its own, said K.C. Roestenberg, Affiliated’s program director in Orange County.

“We wanted to be good partners with the county,” he added.

Hatton said he knew what the contractor was doing but did not inform the supervisors. “I’m accepting responsibility for the things I did and did not do,” Hatton told the board.

According to Hatton, leasing the large computer over three years rather than buying it saves the county $1 million.

Hatton’s boss, County Executive Officer Thomas G. Mauk, also took some of the blame for the foul-up. “We did not do what we should have done,” he told the board.

Mauk said he had begun a review to determine the county’s data-processing capacity and needs for all departments.

After scolding the staff, supervisors unanimously approved the lease, effectively resolving the latest computer problem to plague the county. Information managers have repeatedly sought more money for upgrades, such as $630,000 to lease an IBM processor.

The focus now shifts to the new IBM mainframe computer that the county’s system experts say can handle most of their computer needs. It was bought by Affiliated, which will now lease it to the county.

“The county acted quickly and prudently, under terms of the existing contract, to fill an immediate need in the most cost-effective manner,” said Joe M. Barrett, an Affiliated spokesman in Washington, D.C.

But Cornerstone Systems Inc., an Affiliated competitor, could have provided an IBM computer with 22% more capacity at less cost, said Bob Brayton, an account executive with Cornerstone.

Brayton told the board he felt the county’s procurement system was unfair.

Some supervisors said they wanted to reconsider the decision and ask a municipality like Los Angeles if they could borrow computer time. But that was rejected because of the time necessary to get authorization.

Supervisor Lou Correa said he was considering inviting other data processing firms to bid on the county’s computer needs.

But Correa changed his mind after learning that data processing was sometimes at 100% of capacity, which slows the system, and hearing from county Assessor Webster J. Guillory that processing of tax roll data must begin this weekend.

Correa said that voting on something already done by staff only proved “the process is flawed.”

“I’m really torn and I don’t want to vote for this, but I have to and respect the words of Mr. Guillory,” Correa said.