Delayed City Payments Meet With Mixed Reactions from Vendors

 

Pasadena’s new financial management system, launched in July to replace an outdated system that is said to be partly to blame for a $6.4 million embezzlement scandal announced last year, is now causing its own controversy – delayed payments to the city’s vendors that have led to some of them pulling out of contracted city projects.

One such vendor is Access Pacific, awarded $800,000 for sidewalk repairs in the 2014-2015 fiscal year. That company terminated its contract around April of 2015, after new finance procedures resulted in delayed payments. Access walked away with about 60 percent of scheduled sidewalk fixes unfinished.

Pasadena’s Department of Public Works said the contractor quit because the city wasn’t paying on time. The city still has not found a replacement contractor.

At the Villa Parke Community Center, teachers handling arts and crafts classes have decided to stay on and continue their work even though the city’s checks are delayed by two months or more.

Mykle Parker, who got her first check since June just last week, wrote to the city and said at least five other instructors suffered delays in payment ranging from 30 days up to four months, according to the Pasadena Star-News.

“We have continued to provide services because we care about those we teach,” Parker said in the letter, as reported by the Pasadena Star-News. “They should not suffer for this. Also, we should not, yet we are the ones dealing with the consequences of the city of Pasadena’s repeated inability to pay us in a timely manner.”

The Star-News also reported about concert organizer Rob Robinson going unpaid for his services for the past three months.

“I have to pay for the events, as they occur, but the city is not paying me,” Robinson said. “It’s just crazy and they keep making excuses.”

Robinson has been booking bands, hiring sound crews and buying meals, even though the checks stopped coming, according to the newspaper.

Robinson is said to be $10,000 in debt. A city spokesperson told the newspaper that Robinson will be paid next week.

Pasadena is using the Munis financial software system supplied by Tyler Technologies Inc. throughout City Hall and among the different departments.

SEE: City Signs Contract With Texas Firm to Integrate Finance, Human Resources and Payroll Applications