Minutes - Council - 11/15/1983 - Special

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Councilmember Reimann inquired if Ms. Ca~roll feels the City is asking for too much and are we asking the vendor for something we can't afford. Ms. Carroll replied that the requests do require the vendor to stretch, but we are looking for a creative vendor because a typical vendor will not meet the City's special needs. You will get some bids that are way out of line but you are within range of prices Ms. Moen has discussed with you. Mayor Gamec commended Staff on their attempt to obtain a more innovative system. Councilmember Schlueter inquired as to why Ramsey has to be unique. Ms. Moen replied that Ramsey is not unique, that Champlin, Fridley and St. Louis Park are looking at similar systems. Ms. Carroll stated that cities are finally realizing the value of going to computers. Businesses have been using computers for 10 years and cities respond on a different time line than businesses. Vendors cannot wait for cities to make their needs known so therefore, there has not been a lot of work done in designing computers to serve a city's needs. Ms. Moen stated that most other Cities have computers and are trying to build on or have gone through several in an effort to meet their needs. Ramsey is trying to plan for everything we could need in the future, even if it means staging it over a number of years. Ben Deemer - Referred Mode End in the specs and stated that he feels the specs are a little deficient in their Tele Communications ability. Ms. Carroll replied that she made a decision not to spend a lot of time on the Tele Communications package, that the vendors will have a variety of mode packages available and a decision can be made at that time as to the one that will best serve the needs. Ben Deemer - With regards to printers, specs should require better characters - what is specified is excrutiatingly slow. There is a small price difference between 30 and 55 character. Dick Sieber - What Ms. Carroll has told Council is very accurate but prices of printers have decreased quite a bit recently. Council consensus is that the specs should reflect costs of both 30 and 55 character printers. Ben Deemer - CPU should specify language and versions of language it is capable of running~which would prove the system's versatility and you would not be locking yourselves into one software vendor. Ms. Carroll and Council agreed with Mr. Deemer's suggestion. Motion by Councilmember Van Wagner and seconded by Councilmember Sorteberg to adopt Resolution #83-202 approving of the bid specifications, with changes as discussed above, calling for bids on computer software and hardware. Further, that the Thompson and Company consultants advertise in the Anoka County Union, Minneapolis Star and Tribune, St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press and any trade publications for the bidding on this quipment. The closing date for said bid will be December 16, 1983 through 4:00 p.m. (Please refer to resolution file for Resolution #83-202). Sp C/November 15, t983 Page 4 of 6