City details IT/GIS consolidation and rising software costs in FY2026 draft budget

City staff told council the FY2026 draft budget reflects a recent move away from contracted IT to an in-house IT department and the absorption of a previous IT transfer into the general fund. Staff said the city now has a full-time IT director and a GIS specialist. The GIS role was described as the single full-time GIS employee who also operates a drone to capture aerial photos and maintain asset mapping. Staff said the GIS system (Esri) stores city asset data such as valves and manholes, road condition, maintenance history and project planning metadata. Staff said several recurring software costs contribute to rising IT expenses: financial software costs were described as about $55,000 annually, planning software implementation was cited as a one-time cost of about $36,000 with an $8,000 implementation/conversion expense, computers budgeted at about $26,000, and other software support increases across systems. Staff said those costs are largely unavoidable because many systems are subscription-based. The draft also shows a planned decrease in outside computer consulting and a gradual shift of some contracted services into city-managed support as the IT director takes systems under the city umbrella. Staff said overall IT budget changes increase the department funding by about $24,612 in the draft. Council members asked for clarification about software totals and implementation costs; staff committed to providing details and emphasized cybersecurity training and an annual state-required cybersecurity training program for city employees.