Sims takes blame for costly computer project He seeks another $7 million to shut it down

Friday, June 23, 2000

By MIKE LEWIS SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Accepting blame for problems that could double the cost of fixing King County's payroll and budget computer systems, County Executive Ron Sims yesterday asked the County Council for another $7 million to stabilize and shut down the project.

Sims' request brings the price tag to merge and upgrade the county's two separate payroll and accounting systems to $45 million -- $7 million more than the project's original budget. The merger is a year behind schedule with no completion date in sight.

"It happened on my watch," Sims said in an interview. "You can blame the person who is in charge of this county."

If approved by the council, the money would help sort out bugs in completed project segments. It also would pay for an analysis of what has been accomplished so far, and what the county must spend to complete improvements. The project will remain on hold while the county staff sorts out the problems.

One internal estimate pegs the potential cost at another $31 million, bringing the total project cost to at least $75 million.

Councilman Rob McKenna, chairman of the Budget Committee, said the council is pretty frustrated.

"We've spent $45 million. What have we gotten for that?" wondered McKenna, R-Bellevue.

"How do we know that any new estimates they give won't be as bad as the old ones?"

McKenna said the council "probably" will approve the request because "we're kind of boxed into a corner."

Sims said he is not abandoning the 1997 plan to replace the county's separate payroll and accounting systems -- a vestige of the 1994 King County-Metro merger -- with a unified payroll for the county's 18,000 employees. Instead, he wants to suspend work until full costs can be assessed.

"We simply can't keep going with two separate systems," Sims said.

Councilman Chris Vance asked why no one on Sims' staff seems to know what went wrong and how to fix it.

"That's the most frightening thing -- they still don't know," the Auburn Republican said.

The project began in 1997 when the council approved a $138 million general obligation bond to pay for various computer improvements.

Because the aging Metro payroll system wasn't Y2K compliant, consultants decided to shift to the new Peoplesoft system at the start of this year. The shift happened, but costs already started mounting. It soon became clear the rest of the county was not prepared to make the shift.

The upshot: The county has spent $45 million to switch from two incompatible computer systems to one overall system and remains on two incompatible computer systems. Sims didn't rule out seeking damages or reimbursement from the payroll project contractors, KPMG.

Critics, such as Vance, have accused Sims of placing political cronies, not experts, in charge of the project and say that is why it is in disarray.

Denying the allegations, Sims said he isn't looking to cast blame or point fingers.

"I think the public wants it fixed. They won't remember the names (of who is to blame for cost overruns) one hour after they are in the paper," he said.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 23, 2000