Officials Hopeful New Printing Deal Will Cost Less Than $27,000

Printing cost the city $27,000 last year and a new agreement with ComDoc will hopefully reduce that cost.

City Council voted 6-1 a three year contract (with a two-year optional renewal) July 14 with ComDoc, a company with offices in Pennsylvania and Ohio and a location in Akron.

Councilman Joe Hickin voted "no" because he wanted a one year contract since it was an agreement with a new company.

Although the city has the option to renew the contract after every year, Director of Information Systems Dale Germanos said he will evaluate whether the company is saving the city money after six months. If not, the city will break ties with ComDoc.

"It’s a significant amount of money [$27,000]," said Germanos. "We're expecting to save 15 percent to 20 percent off of that. If we aren't saving in six months, we'll void the contract."

In the deal, the city will still own the printers and copiers, but ComDoc will maintain the machines and pay for paper, toner and ink. 

After evaluating the city's printing procedures, Germanos said there were several employees who used their own printers and several times a year the city would go to a local retailer to purchase printing supplies.

With the service now regulated, Germanos said he will know how many pages are being printed by each machine, personal printers will be eliminated and all supplies will be paid for from the same source, which should save money.