What do you get for $450,000.00

That's a good question..... CSI, the consulting firm working to negotiate a new cable contract stands to put close to that amount in their corporate pocket once a new contract is finally settled.
The burning question that should be on everyone's mind is : What did CSI do to earn that much money ?
Better yet :we should ask:what should they have done to earn all that money?
 UCO and The "team" who are working so hard on our behalf to achieve a good deal on the contract are missing the boat.
How's that? you might ask. CSI and UCO have been working on this deal for about two years. CSI reps have been busy running back and forth with papers and questions, and a few answers now and then. They have been at all the Broadband meetings and seem to be quite knowledgeable about the intricacies of cable TV and Internet and all that stuff.
Two years later and we still don't have a contract ! How can that be? 
Here's the way I see what happened.
UCO went to CSI and said"GET US A CONTRACT"
 CSI goes to the cable providers and says "GIVE US A PROPOSAL"
 Of course the companies supply the committee with their proposals but the committee  think they can do better.
 So UCO says " GET US A BETTER PROPOSAL"
 CSI runs back and forth to their connections and says " "THEY WANT A BETTER DEAL" .
Again the companies sharpen up their pencils and come back with better deals. More stuff and rosier promises.
BUT STILL NO CONTRACT! The proposals are shot full of holes and the committee doesn't like them so they send them to lawyers then sit at endless meetings devising strategies.

There is a better way.

 It should have went like this: 

UCO hires CSI and says" For all the money we are paying you, we want you to draw up a contract that we can put in front of the cable companies" " You guys are supposed to be the experts, you claim you know all about how all this stuff works " "So draw up a contract and we'll get one of these companies to sign it"

"We don't mind paying you for your services" " But you earn your pay  by saving us some money"

Doing it this way would avoid all the running back and forth and changing the deals. Not only that; Century Village would be in the drivers seat and be dictating the terms.
For all the money we are supposed to pay CSI for their services you would think it would be a simple matter for them to draw up a contract that works for us. If CSI was to be paid a commission on the savings they produce it would give them the incentive to get tough in negotiations,
You might also think that someone. ANYONE, on the committee would have thought of doing it this way.
.
It's just another example of the wrong headed, incompetent  thinking that goes on in the UCO administration.
It's not the first time . Remember the "best deal ever" with the security contract that was a complete disgrace. It finally failed leaving a bunch of committee members with egg on their faces and scrambling to find another " best deal yet". I don't even want to think about the horrible one page contract that engaged a paving company to do a $5,000,000.00 job. I guess the paving company drew up that contract too.

CSI ?...... They are getting well paid  to run around shuffling papers and mumbling platitudes. As for doing a real consulting job ....... NOT !
Paying all that money out to hire someone to  ask cable companies for contract proposals speaks volumes about the incompetence of this administration. Any former businessman would have cleaned this up long ago without having to resort to hiring super expensive consultants to do what could be done with a couple of phone calls and letters. But that is not about to happen, anyone worth their salt either wouldn't put up with Israel's nonsense or already tried and were thrown under the bus.
That leaves Century Village in a position where hiring expensive(and unneeded) consultants becomes the order of the day.