Gluckstadt board meets first time in City Hall

Gluckstadt board meets first time in City Hall

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GLUCKSTADT — The Mayor and Board of Aldermen held their first official meeting at the newly leased city hall building on Distribution Drive, Tuesday.

At the meeting, the board approved accounting software for the city clerk, interviewed police chief candidates in a closed session and conducted other business.

At the end of the meeting, the board went into a lengthy executive session to interview two candidates for police chief. Another special meeting was held Wednesday night, where the board expected to interview four more candidates for the position.

“Boy am I thrilled to see this room full,” Gluckstadt Mayor Walter Morrison said as he opened the first meeting in the newly leased Gluckstadt City Hall building at 343 Distribution Drive. The building used to be the corporate headquarters for Georgia Blue and a door company.

Morrison estimated that about 39 visitors in all in the room that will serve as a public meeting space and, city officials hope one day will be a site to hold municipal court proceedings.

“Tonight is the first night we are meeting on our turf,” Morrison said as he thanked St. Joseph Catholic Church and Germantown High School for “graciously’ hosting the city’s previous meetings since their first one held at the church in June. The thanks were approved and codified into a resolution acknowledging the school and church.

According to Morrison, the board approved their largest expenditure to date, unanimously approving the purchase of $51,340 for core financial software from Tyler Technologies Inc. of Plano, Texas. The investment covers the initial installation and implementation of the software and the software itself, equipment, training and travel reimbursements.

The software also comes with additional annual maintenance fees at the cost of $26,324.

Gluckstadt City Clerk Lindsay Kellum said that Tyler Technologies represented the high bid but was the best-suited option for future expansion. Specifically, she said that Tyler Technologies had police and court software that the city would need to acquire in the near future that the other bidders did not offer and would require the purchase of third-party software to ensure that all the individual modules could properly communicate with each other.

“This will allow me to do my job more efficiently,” Kellum said.

Morrison said he liked that going with Tyler Technologies allowed for growth.

“I hope our successors will appreciate this,” Morrison said.

The other two bidders were AccuFund Inc. of Starkville, who submitted a bid of $65,475 with a year maintenance fee of between $6,095 and $8,245. The lowest bid was from BBI Inc. The Flowood-based company offered a total package of $41,890 with a yearly maintenance fee of $6,390. 

“I was impressed by all three vendors and think they offer fantastic products,” Kellum said. “We need everything right now, and I am looking at this as an investment into our future growth.”

City Attorney John Scanlon said the city would need to justify why they chose the higher bid and noted that Kellum’s memos presenting the bids and laying out her reasoning should cover that requirement.






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