The Auburn City Council met for a concise meeting Tuesday, March 17, and they were able to pass every item listed on the agenda.
The council voted to pass the execution of a professional services contract with Affirma SharePoint Consultants of Bellevue, Washington. Affirma’s services will be used to design a SharePoint environment to be used by city staff, citizens, developers, architects and engineers who need to send and receive large files to or from the city, according to city documents.
“SharePoint is a Microsoft product that allows you to create intranet services,” said Charles Duggan, city manager. “There are companies that would sell software for us to build our Council agenda. We’ve saved a lot of money by doing it in-house using Microsoft products like this.”
The contract with Affirma will not exceed $60,000.
The city originally implemented SharePoint in 2004, and it has become an important resource for the City Council, Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Adjustment, Historic Preservation Commission and the Auburn Bicycle Committee, according to city documents.
“Instead of haphazardly going about implementing it, we’re hiring a company to make sure we get the most use out of what we’ve already purchased,” Duggan said. “It’s very customizable which also means that there’s a lot of details to it and so by hiring this company we’re going to make sure it’s as efficient as possible.”
The newest version of SharePoint will allow them to facilitate heavy file transfers with developers, engineers, architects and other citizens doing business with the city.
Duggan also gave a brief update on the apartment moratorium the City Council passed Feb. 17.
Duggan said that the moratorium deadline is approximately Aug. 16.
“The staff is going to be meeting every other week to discuss the plans moving forward,” Duggan said. “They’re still in the information gathering stage of the project and the next update to the council will be due in the middle of April.”
There was no Auburn University communications representative at the meeting, however Councilman Ron Anders, Ward 2, gave his appreciation for the community works Auburn University students did with the BIG Event.
“It was very encouraging to see about 1,000 college students before 8 a.m. getting ready to go serve our community in a lot of different ways,” Anders said. “I’m just very appreciative of the efforts and all who organized that.”
Mayor Bill Ham also expressed his appreciation for those who participated in the event.
“They reach out to many individuals throughout our communities, Auburn, Opelika (and) Lee County,” Ham said. “It is truly a great event.”
Other items passed at City Council included:
-A memorandum of understanding with the United States Marshals Service providing for the delineation of responsibilities of the Regional Fugitive Task Force. Auburn Police Division’s Dustin Hold will be a part-time member of the Task Force.
-A contract for sanitary sewer modeling software that will allow the Water Resource Management Department to perform detailed modeling and capacity analysis of the city’s sewer system.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
