Committee approves IT & Telecommunications budget after department outlines security, resiliency and AI priorities.

The Finance Committee on April 25 gave preliminary approval to the Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITT) FY26 budget after Director Eric Candelaria and senior staff described targeted investments in cybersecurity, infrastructure consolidation, cloud backup, device refresh and early artificial‑intelligence work. The committee heard how the investments are intended to reduce incident risk, improve recovery time, and lay groundwork for automation and improved service delivery.

Director Candelaria and IT leadership described four priority areas: (1) cybersecurity modernization — expanding multifactor authentication (MFA), rolling out endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools, deploying a security information and event management (SIEM) system, automating vulnerability patching and increasing user‑awareness training and phishing simulations; (2) infrastructure consolidation — deploying Dell VxRail hyperconverged hardware to consolidate servers/storage, upgrading network switches and iterating disaster‑recovery approaches; (3) cloud backups and modern telephony — a Commvault cloud backup plan for Office 365 and other critical systems and an Avaya phone‑system upgrade (Teams‑ready) to ensure longer‑term voice reliability; and (4) service transformation and AI readiness — upgrading the IT service management (ITSM) ticket system, implementing an asset management program, refreshing end‑user devices and documenting AI use cases and governance foundations.

Candelaria said the Dell VxRail approach reduces physical footprint and simplifies management, and Commvault cloud backups will speed recovery for email and shared data. IT staff emphasized that about 80% of inbound email is already blocked by existing protections but that human error remains the largest residual risk; the budget includes funding for phishing simulations and staff training. The group also noted growing storage needs (including city video and legal archives) and warned that global hardware price pressure could sharply increase device replacement costs in the near term.

On AI and automation, staff provided a conservative plan: inventory use cases (HR, constituent services, procurement and land use), pursue cloud migrations for legacy systems where appropriate, and create governance and data‑management capacity before production AI deployments. IT also proposed a device refresh and an improved help‑desk ticketing system to reduce time to resolution and reduce lost asset risk.

Committee members asked about timelines and costs for the planned Market Station move (IT workspace relocation) and whether the FY26 budget includes the move; IT staff said the move costs were funded through prior one‑time appropriations and that any carry‑forward for the physical relocation will be addressed in first‑quarter adjustments. Councilors also asked about county and constituent‑facing payment options and whether the city is consolidating payment systems; IT said that cashiering systems are fragmented now and the department is working with finance to consolidate and standardize online payment channels.

The committee voted to give preliminary approval to the IT & Telecommunications FY26 budget. Members praised the security investments and asked staff to return with details on timelines and the vendor rollout schedule for MFA, EDR, SIEM and device refresh procurement.

What’s next: IT will move forward with procurement and phased deployments, coordinate device‑refresh scheduling with departments to reduce operational disruption, and return to the committee with more granular schedule and cost estimates for major procurements including VxRail, Commvault and the Avaya phone upgrade.