View is in eyes of beholder

Ron Sims held a news conference the other day to announce the big sacrifice he's making to save the county budget:

He's moving from his rented space on the 32nd floor of the Columbia Tower — where, on a clear day, you can almost see Tukwila — to the eighth floor of the county's Chinook Building.

Sims said the move will save $4 million in unnecessary rent payments. OK, sounds great.

But that savings is spread over five years and will only cut $400,000 a year — less than one-thousandth of the $662 million general fund.

Impressed? Me, neither.

But County Councilmen Larry Gossett and Pete von Reichbauer sure were. They stood beside Sims, offering praise.

"Practical and austere," Gossett called Sim's move.

"Every penny counts, and every dollar counts," von Reichbauer said.

I wish I could believe that.

Just six days before Sims said he was downsizing for the greater good, he announced a $137 million plan to replace the county's accounting and payroll computer systems. It's called Accountable Business Transformation, or ABT.

You could also call it the county's oldest money pit.

An earlier version was begun in 1997 and was shut down in 2000 after the county burned through $42 million. Managers had no experience with a job that size.

So this new, $137 million price tag includes $84 million for the new system ($64.6 million, with a 30 percent contingency); $11 million already spent designing the system; and the long-gone $42 million.

"It wasn't all a lost cause," said Caroline Whalen, ABT's deputy program sponsor. There were several system upgrades, and the Metro-employee payroll was moved to a Y2K-compliant system.

"I would agree that we didn't deliver the full scope," Whalen said.

Sims' spokeswoman, Carolyn Duncan, said that her boss has taken full responsibility for the debacle.

"Ron has been accountable from the beginning," she said.

Still, it's hard not to worry that something like this might happen again.

It's even harder not to imagine better uses for that money; how much we could use it now.

If you just count wages, that $42 million could have paid for 782 county workers earning the annual median of $53,685. That's a lot of deputies, court personnel, social workers.

And there's a certain shame in the fact that this happened in one of the most tech-savvy places in the world.

Whalen compared ABT to converting a four-story house heated by fireplaces to one with central heat.

It's not unusual for an organization to struggle with computer systems, she said: "We're in good company."

Maybe so, but this system upgrade is being funded with taxpayer money.

There's a certain responsibility that comes with that.

Whalen said I needn't worry: "Ultimately, taxpayers will win because we have a more efficient system," she said. "The county, in my view, is delivering services effectively."

That may be her view. Sims may be getting a new view.

As for me, I'm still seeing red.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Where does one buy an abacus?