The city wants to hire a full-time employee to police printing and cellphone use among workers.
That person would help the city save as much as $700,000 a year in printing costs by controlling printer purchases, and making sure staff use both sides of the paper, only print when necessary and only use colour when needed.
The position was recommended in a report to city councillors outlining a five-year, $6-million printing contract with Ricoh and will be dealt with in next year’s budget. Staff indicated the yearly savings under that contract over actual costs in 2009 could amount to $700,000.
“In order to achieve these savings and more, it is essential that a position be created to monitor and report on the use of print equipment on a regular basis,” reads the staff report presented to committee of the whole.
There were no details provided about salary and benefits for the proposed position.
Rob Rossini, general manager of finance and corporate services, says the printing, cellphone and desktop computer contracts are three of the city’s biggest deals. Technology is making the contracts more complex to manage.
That has resulted in some cost-overruns, he said.
The issue of hiring a full-time contract manager was referred to 2011 budget deliberations but a number of councillors indicated they aren’t in favour.
“It’s going to be a real tough sell for me. Whether we kill it now or kill it at budget, that’s fine,” said Councillor Lloyd Ferguson.
Other councillors said the city should look at any means to save money.
The Ricoh printing contract would be administered on a price-per-page basis, which would include the cost of the equipment, toner and all services. The yearly cost would cut the 2010 budget for print services by $94,000.
The city already has a temporary staff person to manage the print contract and senior staff want to make that position permanent.
The staff member would also oversee cellphone and desktop computer contracts, both of which come up for renewal over the next few months.
The cellphone contract costs the city about $1.2 million yearly, while the desktop deal is just under $2 million.
An audit early this year found that employees were using city-issued cellphones and BlackBerrys to make personal calls and not following rules about reimbursing the city for long-distance charges.
An assessment of the city’s printing needs completed a year ago called for a formal system to maximize savings that would include regular analysis and reporting of print usage, performing print assessments, deploying equipment to departments and verifying print volumes and charges.
The staff report indicates a central person would prevent the ad hoc purchase of equipment. The city rationalized its printer fleet from 1,263 units to 412 in 2004. But since that time, 200 more printers have been added.
