Rockford Sun

City of Rockford Finance & Personnel Committee met Sept. 30.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

I. CALL TO ORDER 

Attendee Name	Organization	Title	Status	Arrived
Kevin Frost	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Franklin C. Beach	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Jonathan Logemann	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Chad Tuneberg	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Aprel Prunty	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present

Other Attendees:

Council Members; G. Torina, K. Hoffman, B. Rose, I. Barrios, G. Meeks, J. Bailey Staff; T. Cagnoni, C. Hagerty, T. Hinkens, S. Leys, Police Chief C. Redd, Fire Chief M. Pankow, N. Meyer, S. Hunter, A. Parham, T. Hughes, C. Bailey, A. Wilkerson, N. Carter Interested Parties and Media

Invocation

The Invocation was led by Chaplain Ken Hendley.

Pledge of Allegiance

Pledge of Allegiance was led by Alderman Frost.

Public Speakers

1. Wally Haas provided information about the Mayor's Hungry Luncheon. 

2. Prophet Yusef recited the first chapter, 7th verse of the Book of Proverbs. Spoke about the root causes of crime and wished his good friends a happy birthday.

3. Cypress Wolf spoke about the events that took place in Israel on October 7th and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

4. John Tac Brantley spoke about the Citizen class, taking complaints to Congress, and Donald Trump.

II. RESOLUTIONS 

1. 2024-230-R - Approval of the Information Technology Managed Services / Insourcing recommendation to bring contracted positions in-house for an estimated cost of $1,800,000 (equal to the cost of outsourcing). The cost is all inclusive of all benefits including IMRF contributions, health insurance, unemployment, workers' compensation, life insurance and parking. The funding source is the Information Technology Fund operating budget.

Tuneberg requested further explanation regarding the IT contract. T. Hughes explained that the current contract expires on December 31st. The City is not fully satisfied with the performance, so they issued an RFP. They sent invites to 47 organizations, received 3 responses, but one was disqualified. The current contractor increased the cost from $1.5 million to $1.8 million, while Insight proposed $2.7 million. T. Hughes noted that bringing IT in-house offers many advantages and could be done while staying budget-neutral.

Tuneberg asked how many employees would be brought in-house. T. Hughes stated that it would involve 9 contracted employees being transferred in.

Tuneberg inquired if other similarly sized communities are doing the same. T. Hughes mentioned that contract labor for IT is becoming outdated because it involves paying a premium for services, leading to lower compensation for employees and higher turnover. By bringing IT in-house with the City’s benefits, employees would be more likely to stay, creating a stable workforce.

Hoffman clarified that the City would be absorbing the current employees, and they would not lose their jobs but would become City employees. T. Hughes confirmed this.

Beach expressed appreciation for the IT department’s work and noted that part of the margin in the payments, estimated at 30-40 percent, is what makes this transition possible.

Frost asked if the relationship issues with the company were unrelated to the employees themselves. T. Hughes confirmed that was correct.

III. ADJOURNMENT 

The meeting was closed at 5:57 PM

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