Commissioners opt to stay with Dunbar firm for copier maintenance
A majority of Fayette County commissioners declined to take action this week to reverse a June decision to replace one of its office equipment maintenance firms, although the released company has claimed there is no basis for its contract to be voided.
At the regular commission meeting on Tuesday, Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink sought direction for a county response after learning that ComDoc of Pittsburgh had asked that its agreement be reinstated as the allegations of poor service could not be substantiated.
“The county has to respond back,” said Zimmerlink. “They are saying that they don’t believe the contract should have been terminated.”
The issue arose last month when Zapotosky and Ambrosini opted to hire Ford Business Machines of Dunbar to replace ComDoc, citing that the five county offices covered in the lease agreement — prison, records, veterans affairs, controller and tax claim — were not satisfied with the service.
Ford Enterprise was earlier contracted to service the copiers used in the other county offices.
When the issue was broached in June, Zapotosky said that he had solicited information from the department directors about the ComDoc service. All, he said, expressed their dissatisfaction with ComDoc.
Madonna Nicklow, director of the veterans affairs office responded that she would prefer Ford Enterprises as its prior service was superior to ComDoc’s.
Deputy Warden Barry Croftcheck told Zapotosky that he supported the commissioners seeking alternative options to ComDoc, while acting Controller Jeanine Wrona wrote that “the copier that we have is slow to warm up before copying.”
“I would like to have a copier with increased speed and the ability to collate,” she said in her correspondence to Zapotosky.
Sarah Minnick, county tax claim director, said she, too, had similar issues.
“We were just recently renewed with ComDoc and have had more problems than good,” she said, adding that there had been weekly service calls.
The county was in the first year of a five year contract.
On July 7, solicitor John Cupp issued a letter to ComDoc stating that its “consistent failure” to address the tax claim bureau matter was the basis for ending the contract.
“Failure to remedy the situation voids our agreement with you,” he said.
However, the claims were disputed, according to correspondence received by the county from Michael Vaughn, ComDoc sales manager.
According to Vaughn’s letter, the offices had a combined six service calls in the past six months and had more than a 97 percent operational time frame.
The correspondence indicated that the veterans affairs office copier had been repaired to the satisfaction of its director and that the prison administrator had admitted the copier is “getting older and over used.”
“(The warden) has no complaints with our service department and response time,” said Vaughn.
While there was a malfunction with the copier in the tax office, the matter was promptly resolved, but the settings must be adjusted to rectify the remaining issues, said Vaughn.
“I cannot get IT support from Fayette County to change the settings on the driver,” he said. “This situation is fixable.”
The correspondence stated that the issues claimed by the controller’s office could be resolved with a training session for the staff, while the records office claims of poor image, service response time and supply, was unfounded.
“The image quality was perfect (during a recent visit),” wrote Vaughn.
In a subsequent July 15 ComDoc letter, a representative said that because the issues had been resolved within the time frame set out by the contract, it has met its obligations.
ComDoc did not respond to a telephone message on Wednesday seeking additional comment.
Zimmerlink, meanwhile, suggested that Cupp be advised as to how to respond to ComDoc.
“They are saying that they don’t believe the contract should have been terminated,”she said. “They are also disputing our claim.
“We need to get this resolved before there is a lawsuit filed. Let’s try to address it before it goes to court.”
Zapotosky said that the issues remain unresolved.
“I’m comfortable with the decisions we made,” he said.