Co-op seeks technical support
Socorro Electric Cooperative is looking to make a high-speed connection in order to meet a deadline to hire a company to provide technical support.
Socorro Electric General Manager Joseph Herrera said a request for proposals to replace Socorro-based Integrated Technologies Group as the service provider has already been released. Final bids are due April 15, and the co-op’s board of trustees would need to take action on the matter at its April 27 meeting.
“We have to,” Herrera said. “USDA has already told us that we have 60 days to get someone on board.”
Herrera said that Larry McGraw, field representative for USDA Rural Utilities Service, requested that the co-op switch to another computer support company.
“USDA asked us to sever our relationship with ITG because of the loan that was made to the former general manager,” Herrera said.
Former General Manager Polo Pineda Jr. borrowed $30,000 from ITG owner Joe Franklin last summer within weeks of an auditor’s discovery that Pineda and former office manager/accountant Kathy Torres had not paid back loans they had taken with the co-op totaling about $35,000.
Pineda and Torres were fired last August in the wake of an investigation into financial irregularities.
A month after they were fired, ITG filed a lawsuit against Pineda in district court demanding repayment. Franklin said at the time that the money lent was a personal loan from him to Pineda, a friend of his since high school.
The lawsuit was filed a week after ITG was awarded a $117,000 contract to upgrade the co-op’s computer server. Franklin said at the Sept. 22 board of trustees meeting at which the bid was accepted that ITG would install a virtual server with mirroring that would provide system back up. It would sync up with existing servers through a process called virtualization. The system runs all the co-op’s software and produces payroll checks and billing statements, he said.
ITG is a side business for Franklin, who is director of information services at New Mexico Tech. The company provides technology support for local businesses, the city of Socorro, Socorro County and the Socorro and Magdalena school districts.
Herrera said more than a half dozen RFPs had been sent out, but representatives from just two Albuquerque companies, Access Technologies and POD Inc., attended a pre-bid meeting last Friday.
“ITG was there and they were very gracious, helping to answer questions,” Herrera said.
Herrera said that ITG is still doing some work for the co-op, wrapping up projects that were already under way.
Though court records indicate ITG’s case against Pineda is still open, Franklin said in an e-mail to El Defensor Chieftain that Pineda paid back the loan.
At last week’s board of trustees meeting it was announced that the co-op had agreed to pay Pineda two-months worth of wages.
Pineda and Torres both filed lawsuits against the co-op last October claiming lost wages. According to the complaints, the managers were due final payment of wages and compensation within five days of termination, but didn’t receive disbursements until three days after the deadline and Pineda only received partial payment.
As per state law, the complaints assert, the former managers are due two months pay, which in Pineda’s case amounted to $19,004.27. He was also seeking an additional $58,646.44 for unused sick time.
Contact T.S. Last