Supervisors looks at IT contracts
Lee Zion, Editor
Harrison County Times-Reporter
Harrison County Supervisors decided to take a second look at its IT contracts, in light of the fact they county is sometimes double-paying.
Mike Dorland, who works in the county IT department, addressed the board of supervisors at its Aug. 13 meeting. He said there are very few things the county has that are not billable.
“We’re paying double,” supervisor Brian Rife said, partly as a question.
Dorland answered by saying the county is paying for services it is not using.
Megan Pauley Reffett, Harrison County auditor, added that one company, Solutions, has long caused difficulty for the county.
“We can not continue with the problems that this company has been causing us,” she said.
Sheila K. Phillips, county treasurer, also had something to say on the subject.
“The software — there are known issues that they’ve had. They aren’t fixing them, and it’s a struggle to get them to do them,” she said.
That forces her to be the “bad guy,” she said.
“Megan wasn’t getting anywhere with something. I called, voiced my opinion. I’ve done it more than once. They don’t like to hear from me,” Phillips said.
She said the problem dates back years, and Solutions may eventually go out of business.
“When Solutions was bought out by Harris, they had all these promises that everything was going to stay the same,” she said. “Well, within the first two years, people started jumping ship because of bad management.”
Phillips guessed that only 25 counties still served by Solutions.
“I just don’t want to be the last one on the boat,” she said.
