Layoffs at tech firm?

The head of a 15-year-old Whitefish technology firm has declined to comment on reports that the company recently laid off 50 employees and defaulted on several contracts.

Ron Behrendt, co-founder and president of Positive Systems, said the company has not filed for bankruptcy. Other than that, he would not discuss the company's current situation.

Positive Systems provides a variety of aerial imagery products, image processing and mapping services to clients around the country.

Reports that the high-tech firm was having difficulty fulfilling all its obligations surfaced during a meeting with the Flathead County commissioners on Tuesday.

Tom Reynolds, program manager of the county's GIS department, told the commissioners that Positive Systems was awarded a $180,000 Homeland Security contract last year to provide aerial imagery of 13 populated areas across Montana, including portions of Flathead County.

The initial contract covered about 400 square miles here, between Bigfork and Whitefish. However, Reynolds said he was able to expand that to 1,400 square miles after convincing other state and local agencies and private businesses to chip in an additional $60,000.

The fee included the flights needed to acquire the aerial photographs, scanning the images and subsequent "geo-referencing" to make sure the image coordinates exactly matched the coordinates on the ground, he said.

Reynolds said the final portion of the contract isn't going to be fulfilled and that his office is having to complete the processing.

"Positive Systems went bankrupt doing this," he told the commissioners. "They laid off their entire staff about two-and-a-half weeks ago, [and] defaulted on 14 contracts throughout the country. The employees said they hadn't been paid for the entire month of February."

Other than saying that "the word 'bankrupt' is not appropriate," Behrendt had no comment regarding any of Reynold's claims.

Mike Boyer, the head of Montana's Information Technology Services Division - which includes the GIS Bureau - said Positive Systems informed the state about two weeks ago that it was suspending operations on the remainder of the Homeland Security contract.

"They made available some of the product that we'd already paid for, but said they weren't in a position to do any further processing," Boyer said during a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Reynolds said the county has paid for and received all of the imagery that it contracted for. However, the final geo-referencing work hasn't been done.

"The last $20,000 [of the contract] was for the geo-referencing," he said. "We held that back and are using it to complete the work. I hired one of their employees to train my staff and we're doing the remaining processing."

Potentially, the county could end up doing some or all of the processing needed for the other communities included in the Homeland Security contract as well.

"Positive Systems has all the state data, but they aren't doing anything with it," Reynolds said. "The state is looking at us as a test [case] to see if we can get this done."

Jobs Now Inc. Executive Director Liz Harris said Positive Systems has been looking for investors for some time.

"I know they've been looking for capital for the last year or so," she said.

Harris said Jobs Now, a privately funded economic development firm, was planning to use its Web site as a test tool for Positive Systems' MapViz digital map software. However, that project is now on hold.

"It's in limbo, waiting for their [Positive Systems'] final outcome," she said. "We still may do it. It's a viable product."

MapViz is the culmination of 14 years of digital map creation and software development and was designed for local governments and real estate professionals. Users access MapViz online, through an Internet browser.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com. Reporter Lynnette Hintze contributed to this story as well.