Time for a citizen's arrest
I don't know how this escaped me, but I'm told that Monroe County sheriff's officer Brett Ortolan is trying to hold up the county for some sort of software program he developed to log department reports.
Word is the county needs something like this.
When questions were raised about whether it would be a conflict of interest for the county to purchase this from Ortolano, the county attorney said it probably wouldn't be.
THIS IS NUTS!
I don't care if the software program is the best thing since the 9 mm. It is a clear definition of a conflict of interest, especially if the county just hands over the dough to Ortolano.
They should fire the attorney for charging for that kind of advice.
What should the county do?
Write bid specs -- at least go through the motions -- so that it appears they are trying to follow proper procedure. Who knows, they might get a better program at a cheaper price.
If they don't, just watch, some programming company will file suit claiming it was frozen out of an opportunity to bid.
Then the county attorneys will make more money trying to defend the county!
Word is the county needs something like this.
When questions were raised about whether it would be a conflict of interest for the county to purchase this from Ortolano, the county attorney said it probably wouldn't be.
THIS IS NUTS!
I don't care if the software program is the best thing since the 9 mm. It is a clear definition of a conflict of interest, especially if the county just hands over the dough to Ortolano.
They should fire the attorney for charging for that kind of advice.
What should the county do?
Write bid specs -- at least go through the motions -- so that it appears they are trying to follow proper procedure. Who knows, they might get a better program at a cheaper price.
If they don't, just watch, some programming company will file suit claiming it was frozen out of an opportunity to bid.
Then the county attorneys will make more money trying to defend the county!
posted by The Observer at 10/16/2007 08:37:00 AM
3 Comments:
At my company I had to sign an agreement that states that any intellectual property that I come up with is the property of the company.
So – if I created the latest and greatest RONCO widget in my garage at home, I would have to get the company to first agree that they didn’t want the rights to it before I could apply for a patent. If I wrote the next greatest video game I would have to get the company to agree it wasn’t theirs before I marketed it.
They do this to cover themselves and remove any vagaries that could occur. For example, I may have used company resources to help develop my widget. Maybe a class I took at company expense inspired the idea. I may have done it on company time. They get the first crack at anything I come up no matter what it is.
In this case it would appear that a deputy wrote a program directly for work purposes, and he wants to sell it to the county. Obviously this program was directly related to the deputy’s job. I’m guessing that he used county time to discuss and develop the idea, and maybe even county time to program the database, spreadsheet, or software. The county may have even paid for the computer training that helped him hone his ability to make the program. Apparently there was a task the county pays him to perform, and he used some of the talents the county pays him for to create the program for work.
Since the county pays him his salary, what more should we owe him? This isn’t even a grey area.
If he doesn’t like it, put him on patrol on the night shift in the hood for the next couple of months to adjust his attitude.
Who is this looser county attorney? Sounds like he doesn’t have the best interests of the citizens of Monroe in mind.
Roundybout.
Roundybout - although some may look at this as unfair this is the policy of most companies nowadays. In fact, many have adopted a clause that if a program or process is implemented by you or others and it is deemed workable and helps to streamline the workload they (employer) gain control of it.
Roundabout as the correct concerning way that intellectual property works. If the deputy did this on taxpayer time with the oversight of his supervisor it is county property. You cannot cay “boss, look here what I am doing to make my job easier and adding value to the taxpayer” and than wish paid twice. I think he ought to be given a very short time to document for the county what he has developed for the county at county expense or have his sorry fat but put in the drunk tank for extorting money under false pretenses. If he destroyed or fail to deliver our goods be should be put in with Tyrone and Leroy for special ream jobs.
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