At the Government Operations committee meeting, county Administrator Chris DeBolt proposed hiring a consulting firm to improve the county's IT department. The firm would offer advice on everything from future technology purchases to changes in policies.
It would be costly, but it could save the county from "wasting money" on unneeded software and hardware purchases, DeBolt said.
Some supervisors weren't convinced.
"$100,000 for a study?" said Easton Supervisor Dan Shaw. "We could end up with anything. Where do we measure that we're successful in spending all this money?"
DeBolt argued that technology improvements will make the county more efficient.
"We're all trying to do more with less," he said. "The only way to do that is through technology."
Shaw questioned whether the county could ever prove that it actually became more efficient.
"We spent $100,000 in DPW for technology. Now we have to pay $10,000 to $12,000 a year to keep it up, and we are tracking how much salt we put on a road," Shaw said.
Efficiency could be defined as an employee being able to do more work, Hebron Supervisor Brian Campbell said. He noted that technology allowed the sheriff's patrol to spend an extra hour or more on the road, because deputies could file reports without having to come back to the office to type them up.
But more work doesn't mean better results, Shaw said.
"So you're telling me crime is down in Washington County?" he asked.
Campbell conceded that putting sheriff's deputies on the road more would not eliminate crime.
Of more concern, DeBolt said, is wasting money on the wrong technology.
That got more supervisors' approval.
"Sometimes you don't need to move to the latest technology, because the current technology works," said Hampton Supervisor Dave O'Brien. "We need to find a way to make a smart decision."
Still, it has to come down to saving money, said Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff.
"Our very first question is going to be, show us where we're going to have efficiencies and save money," he said.
The supervisors agreed to put out an RFP, asking for proposals from technology consultants. But they made no promises to actually hire someone, and they also agreed to send out letters to other counties, seeking free ideas on how to better use technology.
©2016 The Post Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
