Tech Committee Update

Our committee met last week to discuss 4 matters.

1. Update on 311

We have been waiting for a while now on the actual implementation of the 311 system, a non-emergency number to allow people in the city and county a way to phone in problems that aren't life threatening. Right now the additional panels needed are being installed in the local 911 office and so we hope to have that up and running soon.

2. City Clerk Software

We're still in a situation where the city clerk's software is outdated and often causes more harm than good. The best software solution we heard from was a bit pricey (actually they all were, I guess that goes with the territory of custom software). Since the software package that looked the most promising included modules for handling building permits, we may look at a lease agreement with payments to come from both city clerk and building departments.

3. Bandwidth

We were previously looking at using Telepak to handle our internet needs at city hall. Telepak leases bandwidth from the fiber optic cable built by MEGAPOP. However, it was brought to our attention that Metrocast also leases from the MEGAPOP fiber optic backbone, so we are getting figures in from them and are going to be with the best option as far as price is concerned at our next meeting.

4. Website

Continued maintaince of our city website is needed. Given how busy our IT guy, Al, already is with every other technical issue in all of the city departments, we may need to explore the possiblity of hiring a second IT person to mediate some of the issues. This is something we're going to explore more closely as we approach budget time for the next fiscal year, which for us starts October 1st.