Those who work in City of Crestwood offices may be able to relate to the cult classic movie “Office Space.” In the movie, the fax machine continuously breaks down until finally the main characters take it out to pasture with a baseball bat.
Gordon Shaffar, Crestwood’s management information systems director, hopes that the bats stay on the ball field. He began a review process evaluating the city’s printers and copiers in 2009 due to the face that some machines were in constant need of maintenance—some machines are up to 18 years old. After meeting with several computer specialists and receiving bids, Shaffar recommended to the Board of Aldermen Copying Concepts as the vendor of choice for either the purchase or lease of new equipment.
“Copying Concepts actually came out three different times and looked at all the machines to see how many copies we were actually using,” Shaffar said. “They have a pretty good idea of what we did the whole year. Their approach to find out what we actually printed was more accurate than anybody else’s.”
The city currently is home to 36 printers and four copiers. The total annual cost of maintaining the equipment is $21,787.
According Shaffar’s propsal, printer and copier troubles have been an issue in all city departments. Two copiers are under lease, and Shaffer drafted a letter of intent to those two leasing companies.
The costs, advantages and disadvantages of leasing versus purchase were debated during last week’s board meeting. Some advantages of leasing are that costs are spread over a five-year time period. Maintenance costs are fixed. A purchase would be a large, one-time expense, and the city is responsible for replacement should a major component fail. And, maintenance costs are not fixed. Copying Concepts provided a five-year unconditional replacement guarantee in their bid.
Aldermen Jerry Miguel was the first to suggest purchase over lease in the board meeting.
“I personally see no reason to spend an extra $9,000 (the difference in leasing over purchasing) to lease this,” Miguel said. “If we know the equipment is going to last 5 years, let’s just purchase the equipment outright and save the $9,000.”
Shaffer said that due to newer, multi-function copiers and printers, the city only needed about 23 machines.
The purchase of 17 copiers, which was approved unanimously, will come out of the Capital Improvement Fund, which according to Miguel “is not stressed.” The contract with Copying Concepts will be approved at a separate meeting.
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