Home

An offer to help

Dear Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders,

My name is Joe Renna and I am running for Union County Freeholder. I am committed to improving how the county operates and have begun reviewing some aspects of the county that I see can use improvement.

County Manager George Devanney stated that in his style of management he relies on people taking initiative and presenting him with ideas. He said he finds the most value in employees who propose new or better ways to do things. As a county employee, I am dedicated to offering solutions to problems that I see within the county operations. In order to help the County run more efficiently I will attempt to identify things that are either wasteful or inefficient and suggest a way to fix or remedy the problem.

XEROX

I was ready to address the freeholder board concerning the County print shop. It was privatized last September, now under contract with Xerox. I thought that Xerox was not fulfilling their end of the contract because the service was not consistent with what the County reported they would be.. But after reviewing the contract that the County signed with Xerox, I must say that Xerox is abiding by their end of the agreement.

The question that I have now for the Board of Freeholders is, "why did the County sign the contract?"
It doesn't seem that anyone negotiated any terms in favor of the County.
My following suggestion applies not only to this printing contract but to all types contracts.
1) I suggest that someone knowledgeable with the the particular industry negotiate the terms of the contract.
2) I suggest that the contract is read and understood thoroughly by the county manager before he signs it.
3) I suggest that the Board of Freeholders read and understand the contract before they approve it through a resolution.

These suggestions may seem rutamentory but they do not appear to have been applied to the contract with Xerox. The following is an overview of what the county agreed:

The County agrees to pay Xerox $11,473 per month for a 1 year Document Services Contract totaling $137,676 (This is a contract for Xerox to fulfill orders to make copies)

The County also agreed to lease all the equipment and software from Xerox for $22,617.10 per month for 5 years.
Xerox dictates what equipment and software is needed.
If County does not lease the equipment then Xerox does not have to fulfill the orders.
The county agreed to pay Xerox $1,357,026 to lease the equipment.
Xerox owns all the equipment and software. County can purchase it at fare market value at the end of 5 years.

The County also agreed to pay Xerox $36,168.92 per month for a maintenance contract for the equipment. That totals $434, 027.04 per year.
This contract is for the length of the equipment lease (5 years) totalling $2,170,135.20.
The county is committed $3,527,161.20 to Xerox for equipment and maintenance over the next five years. If you add the Document service contract to that the total becomes $4, 215,541.20.

The County also is responsible for paying the cost of renting the facility and the cost of utilities. Besides these expenses that County has 4 employees committed to supporting of overseeing the printing operation. Prepress is done by county employees. The county must equip those employees with equipment consistent with Xerox specifications.

This is astronomical cost to the County but can be justified if the return is also great. I must reveal that the disappointing aspect of this contract is in the limitations in service that Xerox is committed to deliver. This entire contract is based on a maximum allotment of impressions. Once a certain amount of copies are made for the month, Xerox can then charge the County per copy. Change orders and cancelations are subject to additional fees.
Throughout this contract the County of Union owns nothing, neither the equipment, software or consumables. Even the empty toner cartridges must be returned to Xerox. It is up to Xerox to determine if the the use of consumable supplies exceed their "typical use pattern". If so, then Xerox also has the right to charge the county for excess usage.

There are two major problems with this contract.
1) There is that there is a cap to the number of copies that are allowed within the fees that are being paid. Under these circumstances the relationship with Xerox is no different than going to the local quick printer except the the County is paying much more for Xerox to do the work.
2) The equipment that Xerox has can not do the work that conventional presses once did for the county. This means that much of the printing either can't get done or it must be sent out. I wonder if the county is going out to bid for the printing that xerox can not do or is paying Xerox a brokers fee to subcontract the work out.

My experience so far with the sending print requests tot e print shop is that not one came back in a timely manor and when they did the specifications were changed. The explanation for the change of color and quantity was that the print shop has met their quota for the month.

There is not much that could be done with this contract since the leases can not be canceled or terminated. I do offer it as an example of how not to enter into future contracts. I hope this was helpful and accommodating to your style of management.

Sincerely,

Joe Renna