Hyattsville Says Multiyear ERP Must Be Abandoned, Restarted After $524,000 Failure

Hyattsville city officials decided on March 5, 2026 to abandon and restart a multiyear enterprise resource planning implementation after City Treasurer Ron Brooks told the City Council "$524,000 paid to a vendor will not produce a working system." Brooks framed the move as necessary to prevent operational risks and to reset procurement and staffing.

Brooks told the Council he believed the city had selected the wrong contractor and said he had preferred a different bid. "I thought the Tyler proposal was the best," Brooks said, "because it was local government focused." He also said he "recalls spending two years fixing errors from a premature rollout during his time as finance director for Cleveland, Ohio," citing that experience as part of his caution against a rushed go-live.

Councilmember Joseph Solomon, Ward 5, who works on ERP software for governments in his day job, traced the initiative back to his first term. Solomon said he was surprised after his 2013 election to learn Hyattsville had no ERP system and that "He began advocating for one, making a 2013 budget request." The gap between that request and the 2026 decision has been framed locally as a 13-year issue of planning, procurement and capacity.

City audit materials and committee discussion flagged implementation risk. Audit committee recommendations issued in the fall anticipated "a possible failure in the BC Systems implementation, and targeted a 2027 rollout," language that council members cited when weighing whether to continue the current contract or to restart procurement and project planning.

Hyattsville leaders are tying the restart to staffing changes in the finance division. The city has hired Ben Brosch as budget director, bringing the finance department to six full-time employees going forward, and officials are actively looking to hire an in-house IT director. Sources on the council noted the finance office had been "chronically understaffed" and that, in the view of Strab and Brooks, increased staffing should help a future ERP rollout.

Council discussion also flagged near-term leadership turnover as a reason to pause. Solomon pointed to retirements "on the horizon" for longtime senior accountant Mary Ellen Harding and Public Works Director Leslie Riddle and recommended waiting on a new rollout until there is more stability among key officials.

Officials framed the decision with cautionary national context. Council materials and discussion included the warning: "Going live when you aren't ready has consequences too: flawed software rollouts around the country have led to multiple lawsuits against counties from people wrongfully jailed," underscoring the operational and legal stakes the city aims to avoid.

Key questions remain unresolved: the identity of the vendor that received the $524,000 payment was not disclosed at the Council discussion, the relationship of that payment to the BC Systems implementation or to other contractors was not specified, and the status of any contracts, termination liabilities or vendor responses was not provided. With Ben Brosch on board, six finance FTEs established and a search for an in-house IT director underway, Hyattsville officials say they will rebuild procurement plans and staffing before launching a new ERP procurement and rollout.