THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2021 Page 7 Sen. Boncore honored as Legislator of the Year S tate Senator Joseph Boncore was recently recognized by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) as its 2020 Legislator of the Year. The award, which is given annually at MassBio’s Policy Leadership Breakfast, recognizes legislators who not only have been strong advocates for patients and the life sciences industry but who also take the time to understand complex public policy proposals and their impact on patients and the industry. “I am grateful for my partnership with MassBio, and our shared mission to improve outcomes for patients,” said Boncore. “These industries, many of which are based in my district, have been working tirelessly to into a post-COVID world, I look forward to collaborating with MassBio on new opportunities to support patients across Massachusetts.” “A patient advocate from the JOSEPH BONCORE State Senator provide hope in the face of crisis by developing COVID-19 vaccines. As we continue to work towards recovery from this public health crisis and move day he joined the Legislature, Senator Boncore has consistently advocated for policies that help patients and has supported measures that ensure the life sciences industry continues to thrive across Massachusetts,” said outgoing MassBio CEO Robert Coughlin. Boncore was also recognized for his leadership as the Senate Chair of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Caucus, where he has advanced legislation to ensure patient access to breakthrough cures and therapies. Finance Director looks to streamline operations with single system By Adam Swift T he City of Revere is moving forward with a large-scale, 18-month project to streamline, consolidate and coordinate its fi - nancial software. The City Council recently approved appropriating $425,000 from the city’s stabilization account for the software project, as well as another $50,000 to upgrade the city’s work order and asset management system. For years, the city has used two diff erent softwares to operate fi - nancially, according to Richard Viscay, Revere’s Chief Financial Offi cer. “One is MUNIS, which is the general ledger, accounts payable, purchasing, and payroll/HR functions,” said Viscay. “The other is GOVERN, which manages the accounts receivable (real estate and motor vehicle excise in particular), utility billing, tax title, and cashiering. The system is broken, as the two sides do not communicate, leading to delays in revenue posting, manual entries, duplication of eff orts, and overall ineffi cient operation of the city’s core fi nances.” By having one fi nancial system, Viscay said, the city can become more effi cient, eliminate some double entries and make the process as simple as possible across departments and tasks. Viscay said the plan is to switch everything over to MUNIS, which is used by a number of communities in Massachusetts. While Revere has a long history with GOVERN, he said, the city is one of only a handful in the state that use the program, making it more diffi cult to manage. “With the help of Jorge Pazos, our new IT director, and all our fi nancial departments, we got together and made a decision that we all want to get on one unified system here through MUNIS and Tyler Technologies,” said Viscay. “It will be about an 18 month process to pore over all our historical data, from the assessing data, the motor vehicle excise bills, the tax billing, the tax titles, our cashiering system, and our utility billing. It’s a massive project, but it is long overdue and we are really excited to kick this off .” Viscay estimated it would take about 18 months to make a full switchover to a single system. “We may even need to run two systems for a while to make sure we get all the kinks out,” said Viscay. Ward 3 Councillor Arthur Guinasso said the change should make the fi nancial operations of Revere more streamlined and effi cient. Ward 4 Councillor Patrick Keefe asked how soon the city could see some fi nancial savings from the investment and upgrades. “By year two, when it is fi nally up and running, we can get a better idea for labor and fulltime equivalencies and such,” said Viscay. “There will defi nitely be some time savings and that will transfer into savings for salary accounts, for sure.” Like us on Facebook advocate newspaper Facebook.com/Advocate.news.ma
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