Only the Best Will Do
That seems to be the thinking coming from some in LaPorte County government. I dropped into a LaPorte County Council meeting last night and was intrigued when I saw that an emergency appropriation request came up toward the end of the meeting. Apparently a county computer that handles county “business cards and speeding tickets” had broken down. The office was seeking to buy another computer but needed an appropriation of $3,700.00 in order to by a new Apple Mac computer to do the job.
Only one councilman sought to learn more about the situation. He raised the question of whether or not the old computer could be repaired and was told that it could not be. That may be the case, and maybe they even need an Apple to do the job right, but for that size of an appropriation you would think there should be some requirement that the office present in person its need to the council and be open to taking any questions from the councilmen regarding such a relatively large appropriation outside the office’s annual budget.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Whether or not they “need” a Mac to do the job right, it’s entirely plausible that they have built a library of Mac software over the years that would be even more expensive to replace than the Mac itself.
I am not an Apple fanboi by any stretch of the imagination, but as an IT guy I can buy that reasoning.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Fuzzy, I see your point. My only point is, if you need it, justify it, and let the council ask questions about whether or not the money is needed, or if a different course of action is needed.
December 18th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I call b*** s***. I own one of the most uber Macs you can have at the moment. 24″ iMac with dual core 2.16GHz Intel processors. It was nowhere near $3700, even with tax.
Someone’s palm is getting greased.
For $3700 you’re looking at a Mac Pro with all the bells and whistles. That’s way overpowered for just doing business cards and speeding tickets.