Wildwood employees will have first dibs on buying surplus computers, tablets and smart phones after commissioners passed three resolutions Monday to change city policy.
Surplus electronic equipment used to be sold to the public or picked up and recycled. Those options still are available for items that employees don’t buy.
Information and technology director Paul Ketz said with children at home due to COVID-19, employees may need the available phones, computers and tablets.
“What we’re going to do is give them a way to purchase these devices,” he said.
The city regularly replaces its substantial stock of electronic equipment due to age, inability to upgrade hardware or software, slow processing speed or incompatible operating systems.
When devices are replaced, they usually are declared junk and recycled. Wildwood had no provision for employees to buy the used equipment
Under the new policy, employees can buy computers, tablets and smart phones that are less than five years old for $10 each and older equipment for $5 each.
Purchases will be made by payroll deduction and all devices will be wiped clean of city software or restored to factory settings before they are sold.
Employees can request multiple items, but their requests will be processed one device at a time.
Equipment declared surplus and available for sale includes more than a dozen printers, a fax machine, desktop computers, five laptop computers, a dozen Samsung android phones, 14 iPhones and 18 tablets used by police.
