Wasteful Spending
The day after the 2014 City Election, I spoke with Pat Ford and asked if I could come to a City Council Meeting and take a group photo with the newly elected Aldermen. He said he would handle that. Six (6) months later it still had not been completed and he was confronted about updating the web site. I reminded him, HE was going to get a photo. It was finally received and put on the site the day it was received.

In late 2015, Colby Baddour began a rant about a new web site. This came after personal issues between Colby and myself. Baddour was obviously attempting to “get back at me”, letting his personal feelings guide his decisions on City Business. Despite this, City Council gave me the go ahead to begin redesigning the web site. I proceeded.

It is also worth noting that a several years ago, Baddour went on a rant about making City Hall “paperless”. I presented a proposal to the Board at a meeting in which I had 30 minutes to prepare. My company had already implemented the technology in the City’s current web site. All it would take is a little more design work and training City Hall staff. Baddour insisted they seek options and decided to go with a completely untested technology from Local Government at a cost of around $20,000. Not only was this money spent, he demanded that all aldermen have their own IPAD or laptop for use in council meetings and to keep up with city matters. I was later told by City employees that most of these devices are locked in the city vault, UNUSED and the $20,000 was a total waste of money and never implemented.

My mother became terminally ill with Lung Cancer and passed away November 1, 2015. I was by her side most of the month of October and working on her estate November and the early part of December of that year. We then had several major year end projects to complete for Magneti Marelli.

On January 7, 2016, Pat Ford asked me for a meeting to discuss the status of the web site. We met on January 9, 2016. I apologized then because I had been unable to complete it last fall because of my Mother’s death. At that meeting I informed Pat that all I really needed was new photos to complete the site. He stated he would obtain those. I received those a month and a half later on February 18, 2016. Only a couple were usable. I never received usable photos.

Later on February 18, I received an e-mail from him stating there was discussion at a work session and the Board wanted a time frame for completion and they wanted to see the changes before “going live”. I agreed and based on our current work load, I said no more than 60 days.

I never heard another word from them until I read on the local radio station web site they were taking bids on a new web site (after they had hired me to do the same). Very upset that this Board of Mayor and Aldermen would treat me and my company in such a manner (after hosting this site for approximately ten (10) years with out the first incident or complaint, I shut the web site down because I had not been paid for work already completed. I stopped work on the site and I also submitted a bid. I submitted a bid on April 12, 2016 stating my hourly rate was $95/hour for this and estimated to them it should be in the neighborhood of $2500 to $3000 to complete. I asked in my quote to be notified of any and all discussions regarding the web site so I would know what was expected of me and more importantly all transactions and discussions would be legal and ethical. My reason for wanting to be involved is because Rackley Technologies, LLC has performed numerous web sites for customers in Giles County. For example, the Fire Contracts. This is an online service provided to the Pulaski Fire Department and to the E-911 offices. We have integrated these services into an elaborate database for E-911 to aid in responding to fires located outside the City of Pulaski.
We did a web site on Memorial Trees in Pulaski and also Giles County historical sites. I simply needed to know if they wanted to work with us on making this transition.

Negotiations with Pat Ford resulted in the city paying me for the work I had already performed and I agreed to continue hosting the site and to work closely with the new designer for a fee of $2500. They never responded.

In July I happened up on another news article stating the city would be presented a demonstration and quote review at the next work session. I attended this meeting. This Company out of Huntsville wanted approximately $26,000 plus another “several thousand” dollars annual maintenance fees. He could not provide that number but estimated $4000-$5000. He also recommended the city hire someone to be in charge of maintaining the site.

On August 23, 2016, I again found out about a meeting on the WKSR web site stating the City Council was prepared to award the bid on the Web site. I attended the meeting and when it was brought up on the agenda. It was stated by Alderman Jerry Bryant that the committee is recommending ______ ( company name not recognized). The Board voted and it passed unanimously. No amount was discussed.

I nor anyone associated with Rackley Technologies, LLC was ever contacted by anyone associated with the City of Pulaski regarding any meetings to discuss the web site. They completely ignored my request to be notified.

I discontinued all services to the City of Pulaski because of NONPAYMENT.

I am appalled that this council would so blatantly violate the Sunshine Laws and state that the “Committee” recommended this or that. Who is this committee, when and where did they meet, was it a public meeting, was it advertised properly. NO! Baddour, Ford and Bryant talked privately about it.

It took the City over two (2) years to get a web site back online and it is has far less functionality than the old one. It does not contain the elaborate site showing the Memorial Trees Program, the Historical Sites in Pulaski and Giles County. But most important it does not have any integration with the Fire Contracts that the city sells to the E-911 office. A very elaborate system was created for creating and tracking anyone that purchases a Fire Contract that lives outside the City Limits of Pulaski. In the past, when we hosted the City’s web site, when a fire was called in to E-911, a database of every residence in Giles County (developed by Rackley Technologies) was opened by E-911 dispatchers and it would immediately notify them if this household had an active Fire Contract. Prior to the development of this by Rackley, the Dispatchers had to get up from their stations, go find a binder and search through and find the contract. This took several minutes to locate versus instantly and relied completely on the dispatcher to find it. This time searching could cost lives. The new web site lost all of this functionality and cost many times over what our bid was and what the city had paid previously for a site. This is nothing more than WASTEFUL SPENDING on behalf of the Mayor, City Administrator and his supporting council members.
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