Oracle Went Live in September. It Went Dead in December.

Finance official Michelle Hernandez Lane and ITS Director Keith Durbin telling the Budget and Finance Committee that a $35 million contract with Oracle software is a good deal. Metro council has not acted to opt out of the deal.

NASHVILLE, TN – The $65 million software upgrade to Metro’s computer system went “live” last September. It died last month spitting out blank statements, according to part-time workers at Metro Police Department.

Last week MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron confirmed there was a problem with some statements. He said an unidentified number of part-time MNPD employees reported receiving blank ones. According to ITS Director Keith Durbin, they were not blank, just the bottom part was.

We contacted Finance Deputy Director Kim McDoniel to sort out the confusion. She did not return several phone calls and emails.

When fulltime MNPD employees retire, some go back to work part-time in administrative or support positions. Their pay is electronically deposited and a record of it is available on the Metro employee website. But receipts for monthly pension deposits have always been mailed.

Aaron said that MNPD’s Human Resource workers attended a training session in the Howard office building last August on the new software. There were 15 such classes, some held at the Metro SE location on Murfreesboro Pike by the airport.

He said all MNPD staffers whose job required them to use R-12 got trained. Durbin said that was 373 workers. Aaron said the training at Metro SE included Metro employees from several departments, not just MNPD.

One Human Resources worker, who requested anonymity and who attended the August training sessions, said people asked a number of questions about using R-12 that the instructor could not answer.

ITS Director Keith Durbin said MNPD workers got 3 hours of R-12 training. Metro has had a total of 19 problems with R-12 since January 1, 2020. Of those 19, 10 have been corrected and 9 are still unresolved.

Durbin said MNPD pensioners did report blank pension paystubs but it was only a format change. “They are in 3 sections with data in the top and middle section and the bottom section is blank,” Durbin said. He said the system is working as designed.