Fresno City Council Cuts Ties with Failed Software Rollout, Saves Future Costs

The Fresno City Council voted October 30 to formally abandon three software modules the city paid for but never successfully deployed — canceling outstanding bills and securing $150,000 in future credits from the vendor.

The unanimous consent-calendar vote approved Amendment 5 to the city’s 2021 agreement with Tyler Technologies, removing human resources, payroll, and utility billing modules from a larger software-modernization project. The amendment voids invoices the city had already incurred for HR and payroll implementation work that never reached completion.

According to the staff report from Information Services Director Bryon Horn, “significant challenges” during the HR implementation phase derailed the original plan. The report offers no detail on what those challenges were or why the modules failed.

The amendment also cancels unpaid subscription fees for all three modules and converts them into a $150,000 credit spread over three years. That credit can be applied to future software fees or new product modules — meaning the city isn’t getting cash back, but avoiding future costs it would otherwise owe Tyler.

The Breakdown

• The city entered a Software as a Service agreement with Tyler Technologies in January 2021 for multiple modules to modernize city systems.
• HR, payroll, and utility billing modules were part of the original project but were never successfully deployed.
• Amendment 5 removes those three modules, voids outstanding invoices for work already done, and cancels unpaid subscription fees.
• Tyler Technologies is providing a $150,000 credit over three years toward future fees or products.
• No new money is being spent — this is the city formally ending a failed portion of an existing contract.

What This Means for You

The City Council you elected approved a multi-module software contract in 2021 that ran into trouble serious enough to abandon three major components four years later. The staff report your tax dollars paid for doesn’t explain what went wrong, how much implementation time and money were already sunk into the failed modules, or what the timeline was for the work that stalled.

The credit Tyler is offering reduces future costs, but it’s not a refund — it’s store credit the city can only spend with the same vendor on the same kind of products. You’re still entitled to know what the original total contract was worth, how much of it has been spent, and whether this is the end of the trouble or just the first write-off.

What to Watch

The staff report says the city “incurred” invoices for HR and payroll implementation that are now being voided — but doesn’t say how much those invoices were, how long the city carried them, or what work was actually delivered before the plug was pulled. That’s your money, and the gap between “we paid for this” and “we’re walking away” is worth knowing.

Tyler Technologies locks the city into spending the $150,000 credit on Tyler products rather than switching vendors. The city avoids paying bills for software it’s not using — but also avoids explaining in detail what went wrong.

The broader pattern worth watching: when a government software project fails quietly and gets written off on a consent calendar with no public discussion, that’s a sign the process for choosing, overseeing, and evaluating these contracts isn’t working. This amendment is at least the fifth change to a four-year-old deal.