ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606170032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FAIRFAX
Fairfax County is spending $100 million on computer systems that may cost more than they are worth or be obsolete by the time they are fully installed, some officials say.
``We have sort of just said, `Let's spend a lot of money on technology,' but no one has been asking the basic questions,'' said Supervisor Stuart Mendelsohn. ``What is it we are going to do with all this stuff, and is it really going to improve how we are doing business?''
Fairfax County began a computer-buying binge in 1994, investing about $20 million a year in computer-related equipment and consultants and $20 million more on a 270-person information technology staff.
Together, that's more than the county spends annually in several basic service areas, including public works, parks and recreation, and more than the entire budgets of some smaller Virginia counties.
No one doubts that many of Fairfax's 60 computer systems, some installed in the early 1980s, need replacement.
Consultants and county computer staff have spent two years upgrading the police and fire communications system and installing new systems to handle mapping, social services, real estate matters, purchasing and budgeting.
``We are rolling now,'' said Peter Korinis, director of the county's Department of Information Technology. ``We just need to keep the investment going.''
But several county board members say Fairfax's strategy may be flawed.
For one thing, the drive to replace so many systems at once means it will be nearly a decade before all of the work now planned is complete, leading supervisors to ask whether systems will be outdated before they are finished.
Concerned board members asked for formal cost-benefit studies to show the return on their investment - and weren't too pleased by the results.
A recent study of the county's nine major computer modernization programs predicted that, by 2002, Fairfax will have saved about $68.9 million as a result of computer-generated efficiencies. But that is just $2.5 million more than the county will have spent on the hardware, software and consultants' fees, and that does not include the money the county will pay employees to oversee the projects.
``I found it profoundly disturbing,'' Supervisor Gerald Connolly said of the study.
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