DOWNEY - The city has contracted with an outside technology company after the city's own IT department was reduced to a single person due to layoffs and early retirements.As of July 1, the city's IT division will be down to one person - manager Alvin Lam - prompting the City Council on Tuesday to approve a one-year contract with DataSource Solutions. DataSource will handle the city's day-to-day technology needs, offering tech support and maintenance for the library, City Hall and the Columbia Memorial Space Center. The annual contract is worth $221,280 (or $18,440 per month) although city officials say Downey will actually save more than $158,000 per year in salary and benefit costs. Under terms of the contract, DataSource will provide two full-time help desk technicians to support the city's basic troubleshooting needs, a part-time system analyst 20 hours per week with maintaining and servicing the city's servers and network devices, and a part-time programmer 20 hours per week to help with database systems and custom reporting needs. DataSource will also help in other pojects as needed.

********** Published: June 28, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 11