Soruce: Kathleen Hickey, Federal Computer Week (LA), Sep 01, 2010

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's technology outsourcing cost the city an unnecessary $1 million more than if the work had been done in-house, according to a new report from Ed Quatrevaux, the city's inspector general.

The report, issued Aug. 30th, found the city's contract with Telecommunications Development Corp. wasted more than $750,000 in an eight-month period from salaries alone.

Source: By Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune (UT), August 31, 2010

The chairman of a board looking at the potential for privatizing state government functions would like to see Utah privatize a handful of state parks to see if they can be run more efficiently than they are now.

The Utah Privatization Policy Board, an advisory panel to the Legislature, has been exploring privatization for several months. But Randy Simmons, chairman of the board, said he would like to see a pilot project to see how private companies can manage six to eight state parks.

Source: By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News (TX), Tuesday, August 31, 2010

.....The cost, to return the state payroll to pre-outsourcing levels and reduce high turnover among demoralized state workers, has been high: more than $110 million. And there's no end in sight. Last week, Suehs asked for more than $230 million in the coming two-year budget to hire new workers and give raises and performance bonuses. The federal government pays about half of what it costs to screen applicants. The Legislature, though, hasn't been as quick to approve money for new phones.

Source: by CAROLYN BEELER, NPR All Things Considered,  August 25, 2010

 ........ For years, Americans have had their phone calls about credit card bills and broken cell phones handled by people in the Philippines or India. But American firms are starting to bring call centers back to the U.S. -- and this time around, they are hiring more people to work in their own homes.

Source: By Caitlin Devitt, Bond Buyer, Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A month after winning city and county approval to sell its water and sewer system, Indianapolis stands poised to enter into a 50-year lease of its parking meters in exchange for cash and a piece of the annual parking revenue.

It's the latest effort by Mayor Greg Ballard to raise money for infrastructure projects without raising property taxes.

Source: By Rosalind S. Helderman and Anita Kumar, Washington Post (VA), Thursday, September 2, 2010; B01

RICHMOND -- The data storage unit that failed in a warehouse outside of Richmond last week, wreaking havoc in the computer networks of a number of Virginia agencies for more than a week, is a ubiquitous bit of technology used by virtually every major company and government in the country.

The crash -- still baffling to state officials -- exposes the vulnerability of modern, massively complex interconnected computer networks, and is being closely watched by information technology professionals across the country.

Source: Micah Maidenberg, Progress Illinois,  Wednesday September 1st, 2010, 3:45pm

Legislation that would have given a department commissioner more power to contract out city services was averted at Chicago's City Hall this morning. The Chicago City Council Committee on Health signed off on an ordinance allowing the commissioner of the Department of Public Health to strike contracts with a variety of organizations that provide midwife and pulmonary services through January 1, 2017.

 ....... What remains unclear is why the Daley Administration apparently sought broader contracting powers for the department when the mayor initially introduced the legislation on July 28.