Oak Park shouldn’t have bought the PeopleSoft package of finance and personnel software back in 2003. More than a million dollars, years of frustration and – worse yet – a few damaged reputations later, that much is clear. So what now?
With a new year dawning, we’re drawing the curtain on blaming former Village Manager Carl Swenson, his minions and elected officials of that era for anything. Screwy finance software. Whiteco being butt ugly. The “he said, he said” over Los Cazadores. Upside-down parking garages. It’s all history, folks. Solving problems is back in vogue.
The current village board is right to hire, for a modest cost, an outsider to make sense of how the village paid an additional $200,000 to a consultant after the board believed it had turned off the spigot.
We’re not buying Village Manager Tom Barwin’s argument that he didn’t realize he was crossing a line issuing a PeopleSoft consultant a series of checks – each conveniently under the $25,000 discretionary limit placed on him by the board. Barwin has been a manager for many years. Try again, Mr. Barwin.
But we have to question just what the village board thought might happen when, from the 2008 budget, it cut $180,000 intended to cover further fixes of the buggy software at the center of village hall’s computer system. The board knew PeopleSoft didn’t work without support. How did they expect village hall to operate without functional software?
Selection of the consultant doesn’t worry us. “She was a member of the CFO’s wife’s book club!” makes for a debate, not a conspiracy. Oddly, that’s how specialized connections are sometimes made.
For all the outrage vented at the village board table a week ago, we have to ask: Just when did the board intend to deal with an issue its members have known the broad strokes of since August? Before the story broke on the Pioneer Press Web site 10 days ago, the board and staff were working along congenially. What took so long?
West Sub-Lake Hospital
Synergy has a bad connotation these days as corporate-speak for “You’re fired.” But consolidation and cost-sharing are still the inevitable goals of merging multiple entities. In this sapping economy it’s hard to argue with efficiency, particularly in industries such as health care where the downturn is hitting hard.
Last week, Resurrection Health Care dismissed Jay Kreuzer, the long-time president of West Suburban Hospital, and expanded the role of Pat Shehorn to include the top posts at both West Sub and Westlake Hospital, a nearby Resurrection facility.
While we assume saving a salary is not an inconsequential benefit, we’re told that the impetus is to look for shared benefits in owning two hospitals within a small area.
We are parochial enough to regret this further diminishing of West Sub’s status as a stand-alone institution. But we are also practical enough to appreciate the benefits Resurrection anticipates.
A word of thanks to Jay Kreuzer who skillfully guided West Sub into the merger and also got this community a brand new ER.
Breathe out
George W. Bush is no longer president of the United States.