HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDA REPORT 1994 0105 CC REG ITEM 08GITEM
City of Moorpark
Agenda Report
TO: Honorable City Council
FROM: Richard Hare, Deputy City ManageV,��
DATE: December 20, 1993 (CC Mtg. 1/5/94)
SUBJECT: Consider Computer Purchase Loan Program fog,. 1
Employees
Background
The City Council previously approved a Computer Purchase Loan Program
to encourage employees to purchase IBM compatible computers which
would facilitate our training efforts and improve employee computer
skills without any cost to the City. Thus far, no one has used the
program. Several aspects of the program appear to inhibit employee
participation.
The first is the requirement that vacation leave be reserved to secure
the program. Not only does that limit an employee's vacation options,
it also makes the administration of the program more complex.
The second is the floating interest rate. Most people prefer to know
what the interest rate is going to be before they agree to a loan. It
is the City's intention to offer the program at no expense to the
City, and the floating interest rate was proposed so that there
wouldn't be any loss of interest earned on the City funds used in the
loan.
The third impediment has been the limitation on the loan amount to
$1,000 which isn't enough to buy a complete system. An employee would
have to have two loans in order to buy a complete system.
Purpose
The Computer Purchase Loan Program was proposed to encourage employees
who otherwise wouldn't purchase a home computer system, to do so, and
so employees who were considering such a purchase would be able to
purchase computer equipment compatible with the computer equipment at
work. Their home use of the computer system would foster improved
computer skills and increase their productivity and efficiency at
work.
Proposal
It is proposed that employees be allowed to borrow up to $3,000 for
appropriate computer equipment compatible with City equipment and that
they have three years to pay that amount back. It is proposed that
the interest rate be set as a fixed rate at the beginning of the year
using the 30 year treasury bond as a guide to setting the rate. The
30 year treasury bond would be higher than the short term rates that
the City is allowed to invest in.
The employee would sign a loan agreement making automatic payroll
deductions and securing the loan with the equipment. If an employee
borrowed the maximum amount they would have a payment of $42.12 each
pay period for three years.
The Budget and Finance Committee (Mayor Lawrason and Councilmember
Montgomery) reviewed the revision to this program and support the
changes.
Highlights:
* Eligibility: 1 year of service, full -time regular employees.
* Interest: 30 year treasury bill rate.
* Hardware: IBM compatible or MAC with IBM interpreter
software
* Accessories: Printers, Modems, Laptops, Docking Station, Carry
Case, Mouse, Monitors, keyboards.
* Software: WordPerfect, Lotus, Windows, Harvard Graphics,
DBase, TimeLine, Ascend, Pagemaker, MS -DOS and
associated business programs as approved by the
City.
Recommendation
Approve the revision to the computer purchase loan program for
employees authorizing the City Manager to sign the necessary loan
agreements for employees and appropriating $15,000 from the General
Fund reserve in account 01.4.117.906 for this program for the
remainder of fiscal year 1993/94.