The Fenton capital improvements committee voted to advance a recommendation to adopt BS&A financial software after hearing presentations from staff on conversion scope, costs and operational benefits. The discussion on Aug. 7 centered on conversion of prior years of financial data, cloud hosting, user access and long-term maintenance costs.

City Administrator Nikki Finkfeiner presented the evaluation, saying staff solicited eight bid notices, seven firms requested bid packets and two vendors submitted proposals. Tammy, the city’s finance director, described operational problems with the current system and told the committee, “the software we’re using is locking up on us. It just isn’t working very well for us anymore.”

The two written bids shown to the committee included a BS&A base first-year bid of $71,910 (including travel of $14,165) and a quoted annual fee thereafter; the other vendor, Edmonds GovTech, quoted a lower base price in year one but offered conversion of fewer prior years of data. Committee members and staff noted that BS&A’s proposal would convert five years of prior data and include on-site training, while the alternate proposal would convert one year of prior data.

Board members also questioned contract length, exit provisions and security for cloud hosting. Tammy said the city will get written confirmation about data portability and other contract terms and that staff would request security and backup details from the vendor. Nikki Finkfeiner confirmed bidders were required to sign the city’s professional services form contract and that the contract allows the city to terminate for convenience while paying for services used to that date.

Alderman Mazurang moved to forward the recommendation to adopt BS&A to the full board; Alderman Hills seconded the motion. The committee recorded the motion as carried. The committee asked staff to confirm timeline and the expected overlap required between the city’s existing software license and implementation of the new system so the city would not require an additional short-term extension.

Staff emphasized next steps would include obtaining the written security/backup documentation, confirming conversion and data-portability language, and setting a conversion schedule with the vendor. No final purchase contract was signed during the meeting; the committee forwarded the recommendation for the full board to take final action.