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Town of Southbury – First Selectman Tech Committee Updates Page

 

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The Information Technology Steering Committee has met on May 7, 2008

 

Members:

 

          Ken Kerin, Chairperson

          Donna Pereira, Vice Chair

          Bill Sarosky

          Doug Ziemke

Frank Salamone

Jennifer Naylor

 

The following charge was approved at the May 15, 2008 Board of Selectman Meeting: 

 

 

RESOLVED:  The IT Committee is charged with reviewing the current Information Technologies used by the Town of Southbury, identifying and assessing needs, and developing recommendations for investing in hardware, software, training and management oversight to meet the identified needs.  Once recommendations are approved by the Board of Selectmen the IT Committee will oversee the acquisition, installation and testing of these systems.  Recommendations will also be developed with respect to IT policies for the Town and the need for ongoing IT management.

 

 

Residents are encouraged to contact this committee by emailing comments to select2@southbury-ct.gov.  Meetings are scheduled for the first and third Wednesday of each month in Room 106 at 7:00 pm of the Town Hall.   Please call 262.0647 to confirm all meetings.  Thank you.

 

 

MEETING DATES OF THE IT STEERING COMMITTEE ARE AS FOLLOWS:

 

 

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

 

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

 

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

 

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

 

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

 

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

 

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

 

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

 

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

 

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

 

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

 

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

 

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

 

Wednesday, November 10, 2008

 

 

 Minutes of the IT Committee

May 7, 2008

 

Present: Ken Kerin, Chairman

              Jennifer Naylor

              Donna Pereira, Vice-Chairman

              Frank Salamone

              Bill Sarosky

              Doug Ziemke

 

The first meeting of this new Committee was held at 7:00 o’clock at Town Hall.  A Chairman and a Vice-Chairman had to be selected.  Bill Sarosky made a motion, seconded by Donna Pereira, to elect Ken Kerin as Chairman.  The motion passed unanimously.  Ken Kerin made a motion, seconded by Bill Sarosky, to elect Donna Pereira as Vice-Chairman.  This motion passed unanimously.

 

Committee Operations

Meetings will be held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 7:00pm.

Communications, such as agenda, minutes, and any pertinent information, will be sent electronically to each member.

 

Charge

A draft of the charge of the IT Committee had been written and discussed with the members.  They agreed with the responsibilities stated therein. Donna Pereira made a motion, seconded by Doug Ziemke, that the charge of the IT Committee be presented to the Board of Selectmen for approval.  The motion was passed by all.

 

Scope

The goal is to be an all encompassing committee.  It will include the entire range of the Town’s IT applications and system.  As their work progresses the Committee will be free to act upon any new situations that arise.  Needs will be prioritized and recommendations will be basic definitions and subject to change.

Listings were:

 Basic IT Infrastructure which included desktop equipment, platforms, networking, internet and email capabilities, security, and standards and policies.

 

Applications -GIS, financial accounting, land records/appraisal, communications, CAD, and web site.

 

IT Support and Management- Data management, standards and policies, and IT governance.

 

Needs of Constituent Groups- Town departments, public (including Heritage Village), and intergovernmental.

 

                                   

 

Communication and Interaction With Town Staff

The Committee wants to meet with Department heads for their input as to needs, ideas for

improvements and what works best for their department.

 Periodically reports of what the Committee is doing will be sent to the staff. 

Get the staff more engaged when their expertise is needed. 

An email report of any of these staff meetings will be sent to the IT Committee, resulting in

good communications between the groups.

Ask for volunteers from the staff to review web sites of other towns. The IT members will

put together specific questions for the volunteers to use in the review process.

 

Bill Sarosky left at 7:50pm for the Board of Finance meeting.

 

Discussions continued on initiating a review of the Town’s current technology and the

importance of inclusion of the staff for suggestions and shared information .

 

Donna Pereira mentioned using Google Documents as a source for sending documents to

the Committee members.  This enables any of them to make corrections or add a new

idea.  This document may then be called up and viewed by any other members.

 

A motion to adjourn at 8:10pm was made by Donna Pereira and seconded by Frank

Salamone.  It was passed by all.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Joan Vaughan, Secty.

 

Minutes of the IT Committee

May 28, 2008

 

 

Present  Ken Kerin, Chairman

                Jennifer Naylor

                Donna Pereira, Vice-Chairman

                Frank Salamone

                Bill Sarosky

                Doug Ziemke

 

Guest      Chris Baker, Quality IT Solutions

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM.  The minutes of the May 7, 2008 meeting were approved as written.

 

Evaluating Our Current IT Infrastructure

Ken Kerin introduced Chris Baker who has worked with the Town since 1992.

Chris had written a Technology Plan covering the Town from 2005-2010 and was asked to attend this meeting.    Chris provided an overview of the Towns current IT infrastructure and applications.  He said our most critical need was to replace the server for the Town Hall, and the server for the Police Dept. . Apart from the Town system The Police Dept. has its own system and the Probate Court is tied directly to the State. Presently, everyone is connected to the Town network but not necessarily to email or the internet. 

Chris mentioned there has been dissatisfaction with the GIS system because information is not current.  There appears to be a need to update the data more frequently.  He suggested investigating how other Towns are using this system for maximum benefit.  Discussion of a variety of topics and suggestions between Chris and the Committee were exchanged during this time and everyone agreed that the Town and the Police need new servers. The new servers should be sized to meet the needs now and for the foreseeable future.

Chris left the meeting at 8:45PM.

 

Bill Sarosky said that the Police Dept., recently moved into its new headquarters, needs 15 new computers.    The current operable machines in the Police Dept. could be placed in other Town departments as needed.  The resources are available and the issue is identified as critical.

 

Next Steps

Interview department heads with respect to the applications they use, assess their needs, and then go to other towns for ideas.

Frank Salamone asked if we had a picture of the whole network.

 Doug Ziemke will do a matrix of the departments and the applications on a spreadsheet for the June 11 meeting.

 

The GIS system involves the Building and the Planning Depts. as well as the Assessor and Tax Collector offices,   This will be the first group interviewed.

 

Ken Kerin put together a draft survey form for staff who will be going on line to view the web sites of other Towns for evaluation and comments.  The survey will cover specific areas to look at and evaluate.  The Committee members will use Google Docs. to add more specificity to the draft survey document.

 

A motion was made by Doug Ziemke and seconded by Donna Pereira to adjourn the meeting at 9:30 PM.  All approved the motion.

 

Our next meeting is Wednesday, June 11th.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Joan Vaughan, Secretary

 

 

Minutes of the IT Committee

June 11, 2008

 

PRESENT      Ken Kerin, Chairman

                        Jennifer Naylor

                        Donna Pereira, Vice-Chairman

                        John Rutherford

                        Frank Salamone

                        Bill Sarosky

                        Doug Ziemke

 

Chairman Kerin called the meeting to order at 7:00PM.  He introduced new member, Jack Rutherford, to the group.  The minutes of the May 28th meeting were approved as written.

 

Meeting with Department Heads

Jennifer Naylor, Jack Rutherford, Bill Sarosky, and Ken Kerin were at this meeting.  Ken talked about the charge of the IT committee, its members, a review of the web sites, and the importance of their involvement in the discussion of their applications. So far five department heads have agreed to review web sites of towns selected by the committee.  The goal is to have at least one representative from each department engage in this exercise.

 

Staff Review of Web Sites of Other Towns

Jennifer Naylor distributed a listing of towns and “starred” about 50 web sites to be looked at by department volunteers.  Criteria for the choices were towns of similar size, population, and equalized grand list.  Committee member will also review town web sites in our search for the best examples.  Jack Rutherford handed the Committee a list of local and national municipal web sites that were recommended to him as being well done. Ken asked the committee to look at these as well.  Initial reports from the Committee and the staff will be available for the June 25th meeting.

 

Evaluating Southbury’s Current IT Infrastructure /Chris Baker Presentation

Chris had given a thumbnail sketch of the current technology at our last meeting.  Security will become an important issue as we expand the use of technology and access. The committee saw a need of a list from each department of their hardware, as well as, the number of users, and the number of licenses and their cost.

 

Jack Rutherford will use Chris Baker’s report to create a matrix of the hardware currently in the town.  The matrix will be reviewed by staff to ensure it is up-to-date. This information will be added to the overall plan.

 

Bill Sarosky mentioned the need for a generator for Town Hall to protect the computers and the phones when the power fails.  In the discussion that followed Ken agreed to raise the issue of a generator at the next meeting of the Board of Selectmen.

 

Meeting with the Staff on Applications

Ken put together a draft questionnaire that will be used to guide staff in preparing for their meeting with us. (ex. GIS).  Users of each application would collaborate on the input and submit only 1 questionnaire.  In the ensuing committee discussion two questions were added to the questionnaire. Ken will put the questionnaire on Google Docs for further refinement by the committee. Ken will work with Jennifer to schedule the application meetings. We hope to schedule the first one with the Town Clerk at our next scheduled meeting, (Wednesday June 25 at 7:00 pm) and the second with GIS users at 4:00pm on Wednesday July 9th in room 208

Earlier this year Donna met with Department Heads and gathered information on the town’s financial reporting system. She will share that information with the committee as background to our review of the towns Financial Accounting application.

 

Budgets and Pace of the Committee

The committee discussed the town’s IT budget and the pace of our planning process. Bill Sarosky will review the budget and pull together the towns “IT Budget” for the coming year. Ken noted that the Town will begin to develop its next budget in December. Ken said that in looking at the whole project, we will need to make enough progress so we are in a position to propose a reasonable IT budget as part of this package. At some point in the near future the Committee will need decide if a consultant or a permanent staff person should be hired, or a combination of the two.

 

 

Bill Sarosky made a motion, seconded by Doug Ziemke, to adjourn the meeting.  The motion passed and the meeting adjourned at 8:30PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Joan Vaughan, Secretary

 

Minutes of the IT Committee

June 25, 2008

 

PRESENT      Ken Kerin, Chairman

                        Jack Rutherford

                        Frank Salamone

                        Bill Sarosky

                        Doug Ziemke

 

ABSENT        Jennifer Naylor and Donna Pereira

 

GUEST           Ginger Salisbury, Town Clerk

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM.  Ken introduced Ginger to the Committee.  Ken explained the purpose of the special meetings with Department Heads is to find how these applications are working, learn about enhancements, and provide an opportunity for staff to make requests for newer or different applications.

 Prior to this meeting Ginger had filled out 3 separate forms entitled Meetings on Town Computer Applications.  The software applications are ACS, Adkins, and Access.  She discussed how the applications are used in the Town Clerk’s office and the other departments included as secondary users.  The Land Records all come to her office and include deeds, mortgages, and liens.  The State has very strict laws and these applications are state mandated.  The ACS’ application not only does the land records but keeps track of the monies involved in a cash register which assigns the monies to the appropriate account.  Ginger gave a very detailed description of the many different steps involved using a purchase of a home as an example.  She has found ACS to be efficient, user friendly, lots of options and they provide in-house training when needed.

Digital Maps- Thanks to a State grant large surveyor maps are sent out and produced digitally, and put on a CD rom.  The Town Clerk’s office can now print the maps on the one computer dedicated to maps using the Adkins application.

Access - Mike Ingber, a software consultant, works for the Town developing active databases.  This system includes a Dog Program which keeps track of all dogs, produces licenses, incident reports, and reports for the State; Vital Statistics produces bills to be mailed to other towns, indices for the yearly vitals volumes, prints a marriage license on the required form, and reports to the Registrar of Voters; Fish and Game Program tracks all sports licenses and state reports; Map Program tracks and produces indices of all filed maps; Officials Program tracks all elected and appointed officials, resignations, and produces various reports used by town committees, Selectmen’s Office, and various other offices; Veterans Program tracks all their discharge papers that are received and the volume and page where they are filed.  Ginger is happy with this program.  Ginger invited any interested committee member to join her tomorrow, June 26th at 4:30pm in her office for a demonstration of the systems she uses.

 

What the Town Clerk would like to have is another computer, indices on line, a new scanner with improved capabilities, Town ordinances on the web site as read only, and links for public information.  Ginger said that the office receives so many phone calls from people asking the staff to look up a phone number, “is the town concert cancelled?” “has my dog’s rabies expired ?’etc. which are non-relevant duties and uses valuable staff time.  Ginger left the meeting about 8:30pm.

 

The Committee agreed that the present applications questionnaire worked well and served its purpose.

 

Ken reported that at the Selectmen’s meeting Jack Rutherford’s appointment to the IT committee was approved.

Ken put the request for a generator for Town Hall before the Board of Selectmen.  Tom Crowe will address the question of emergency power for Town Hall.

 

The minutes of June 11, 2008 were accepted as written.

 

The next review of applications will be GIS on July 10, 2008 at 4:00pm in Room 208, DeLoris Curtis will meet with the staff members who use this application for their input and submit one form to the committee.

 

Review of Web Sites

The Committee discussed the web sites they had personally reviewed.  Ken mentioned that in a few days more forms will be submitted by Department Heads.

Bill Sarosky gave copies of a synopsis of the new Town budget effective July 1.  The total monies for IT amounts to $202,700, not including $70,000 for IT consulting services.   That money is a line item in the budget for professional service.

 

Jack Rutherford reviewed Chris Baker’s report and submitted a matrix with the information on a spread sheet.  This document is on Google docs for review by the committee.  Bill Sarosky will submit a diagram of the Town networking.

 

Following our review of the GIS application Ken would like to move on to Finances.  Donna Pereira will provide her list of comments and observations she assembled when she interview Dept Heads, 

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:05pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Joan Vaughan, Secretary

 

Minutes of the IT Committee

July 10, 2008

 

Present:          Ken Kerin, Chairman

                        Jennifer Naylor

                        Donna Pereira, Vice-Chairman

                        Jack Rutherford

                        Bill Sarosky

                        Doug Ziemke

Absent:           Frank Salamone

Guests:           DeLoris Curtis, Dept. Head of Planning & Zoning, Nancy Van Norden, planning coordinator, and Thad Dymkowski, GIS analyst.

 

Review and Critique of GIS Applications

The meeting started at 4:10PM in the Planning and Zoning office for a demonstration of the GIS program and its use by Planning, Zoning, Building and Wetlands departments.  Their input comes from the Assessor’s data with all graphics put into electronic form.  The data are updated monthly.  Thad used the computer to show the availability of the most detailed features on the maps such as bridges, houses, pools etc.  Within the next 2 weeks new aerial photos which were taken for Town will be loaded on the system and provide more current detail.  All data is archived which allows new layers of data to be put on when changes occur.  Thad’s company, Fuss & O’Neill Technologies, also has the ability to take information and incorporate it into GIS where the whole Town could have access.  Access to this data can be controlled by use of passwords. 

All those present returned to Room 208 for further discussions.  DeLoris said that by Sept.1 all tax maps will be updated.  All offices on the 3rd floor now have GIS on their computers.  Nancy Van Norden has been appointed the point person, handling all of the smaller changes that occur.  For larger changes, Thad would be called in and any problems can be resolved by phone support from ESRI, the software provider. The 8.0 version of GIS is presently on the computers; 9.3 is the newer version.  Thad said the most critical steps for Southbury are continuing data updates for accuracy, supportive software, and identification of all departments that do not have GIS but might benefit from the program.  The importance of training the users of GIS was emphasized.  Fuss and O'Neill's office in Manchester would be the ideal place because they have facilities for this type of training   Thad indicated that Meriden, Glastonbury, Bethany, Newtown and Redding were towns that were making the best use of their GIS capabilities.  

 

Doug Ziemke left the meeting at 5:05pm. Our guests left at 5:15pm.

 

The minutes were of the June 25th meeting were approved as written.

 

Ken said that we will need to follow up on the training, monthly updates, and the aerial updates that are supposed to occur by September 1...

 

Review of Web Sites of Other Towns

Ken would like to identify about 10 towns who we feel are on top of their technology. We will initially survey them by phone.  The phone survey should  narrow the list to the top five or so who merit a visit.  A questionnaire, approved by the committee, will be written covering the categories to be covered during the above phone calls. Ken will provide an initial draft on Google docs. The IT Committee will review the web sites of the 23 towns for which staff evaluations have been received.  Each member will email Donna his/her list of the top 5 and any other site worth considering.

 

The Committee agreed that as we conclude our initial review of each department and their applications we should compile a draft listing of our initial observations and recommendations. Jennifer will set up a “Google docs’ for this purpose.

 

The Assessors office, Henry Stormer, Fire Marshal, Tom Crowe, and Mark Massoud will be asked to fill out the “ GIS Application “ form and they will be invited to participate in our next meeting.  The next meeting will be at its regular time and place: 7:00 pm on Wednesday July 23rd.

 

The meeting adjourned at 5:45pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Joan Vaughan, Secty.

 

 

 

 Minutes of the IT Committee

July 23, 2008

 

Present:          Ken Kerin

                        Donna Pereira, Vice-Chairman

                        Jack Rutherford

                        Frank Salamone

                        Bill Sarosky

                        Doug Zeimke

Absent:           Jennifer Naylor

 

Guests:           Michael Moriarity, Tax Assessor; Henry Stormer, Fire Marshal; Mark Massoud,

             Inland Wetlands, and DeLoris Curtis,   Planning and Zoning

Visitor             Randolph Richardson, Sr.

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm.  Ken introduced our guests and explained that each of the departments mentioned above uses the GIS system.  The IT Committee wants to learn about the GIS applications used in different departments and their individual concerns and recommendations.  The committee is aware that the current GIS version is an older one, that individual skills are not up-to-date due to lack of recent training, and that the aerial maps are older versions.

 

Michael Moriarity- Commented that the system has really never worked well and the information is not accurate.  The assessor's office uses a map block and lot system for every parcel in Southbury and ownership on parcels must be updated.  Subdivisions are not up-to-date nor are the tax maps. When problems occur there is good response from Thad.  DeLoris said that her goal of updating by Sept. 1 will include the Assessor's office since all her information originates in that office.  Mike mentioned that all of the real estate assessments information is currently on the internet- Total Valuation- and he would like it put onto the GIS system and onto the Web site.  He said that the data bases are not linked.   Mike's conclusions were a need for updating the system, a period of in-depth training, and GIS system links to all users.

Henry Stormer- The Fire Marshal uses the system to enforce the requirement for fire lanes.  He prints an aerial photo of the map and draws, by hand, the location of the fire lanes.  Anytime there is a fire he takes a GIS photo copy of the property.  Henry has a laptop he takes with him to a fire and would like to have available on it information about the location of fire hydrants, propane tanks, underground gasoline storage and whatever else would be pertinent to his response in an emergency situation.  He would like a fire layer added to GIS.

Mark Massoud- He has experience with GIS for many years and indicated that it is critical to his job function in a municipality zoning and wetlands and the processing of zoning permits.  The department is very dependant upon the accuracy of the information and must have the latest updates for land use.  He would like to be able to attach digital photos to parcels for referencing.  He felt the system is reasonably accurate but will rapidly become outdated.  Mark said GIS 9.3 would be more user friendly and emphasized the need for classroom training.

Additional data that Mark would like to have available would be driveways, water quality, storm drain outlets, and topography with 2 ft. contours as opposed to the 10 ft. contours.

 

The panel and the Committee discussed the need of upgrading to GIS 9.3 and the ramifications of value and benefits. A key question is whether we will need to rewrite “Community Explorer” or can we dispense with this custom piece of software. Thad, of Fuss & O’Neill, will be asked to present a side-by-side demonstration of 8.0 and 9.3 for comparison purposes.

 

The panel left at 8:10pm and the visitor at 8:15pm.

 

The minutes were approved as written.

 

The Committee discussed the question of who on staff will oversee the new system when it is set up and concluded that the Town will need to address this issue in the very near future. 

 

Review of Web Sites of Other Towns

Ken stated that 7 of the top towns from our review of websites would be called and asked questions about their web site and how they manage the process.  As each Town site is interviewed the data will be entered into Google.docs for review and comments by the Committee.  Donna inquired if we needed to do an RFP when we are ready to seek a web designer.  Bill said if the cost is less than $15,000 we do not need to go out for sealed bids.   Jack mentioned that some vendors expect to "own" the web site at a fixed cost while others will want the town to maintain it.  Many sites contain “Disclosure” statements.  At some point we will need to talk to the Town Attorney about the legalities concerning a web site.  Ken distributed a draft of a”Website” questionnaire for use in calling Towns and asked the committee for any additional questions by the end of the week.

 

Our next meeting, on August 13th at 7:00pm, will include a discussion with the two registrars of voters on their applications.

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:00pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Joan Vaughan, Secretary

 

 

Minutes of the IT Committee

August 13, 2008

 

Present           Ken Kerin, Chairman

                        Donna Pereira, Vice-Chairman

                        Jennifer Naylor

                        Jack Rutherford

                        Frank Salamone

                        Bill Sarosky

                        Doug Zeimke

Guests            Marie Greene and JoAnn Bolin, Registrars of Voters

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM.  Ken introduced our guests to the Committee.  The minutes of the July 23 meeting were approved as written.

 

Marie and JoAnn addressed the computer applications used by the office of the registrar. The browser system from the State is called Converse which contains all voter information necessary for registration and keeps track of the elections and referenda in which they vote. This information is entered manually into our system.  Some major drawbacks are when 2 people in the office are inputting information in the same field on the two machines the names can be mixed up. The Registrars would also like to be able to import this information into their Access database.  The Access database allows notations to be made on the records but the State system does not.  Also the data are more easily manipulated in Access. A file card is the official registration of Town voters. If any questions arise during voting these files are used.  It was mentioned that their printer is very old and they have trouble printing reports.  Bill Sarosky explained that all the Town printers are networked and can be used if necessary.  This office can access the internet with the Town system and would like to have scanning ability to the Town website because the Registrars office has a lot of pertinent information for residents.  The Registrar is required to submit, monthly, the alpha list, with any changes, to the Town Clerk.  They would like the ability to put this large packet on a CD.  The Committee left Rm. 106 at 7:30PM for a demo of the computer programs in the Registrar’s office.  The Committee returned to Rm. 106 at 8:05PM and discussed the programs they had seen and some helpful changes that could be made.

 

GIS Conversion from 8.0 to 9.3

Jack Rutherford distributed copies of a summary report of his meeting with DeLoris Curtis, Thad Dymkowski and Michael Doyle of Fuss & O’Neill.  Jack found out that GIS is a very stable application started in 1999.  Version 9.2 was released a little over 6 months ago, is widely deployed, and working very well.  Community Explorer has been written by F&O to enhance the utility of the ArcGIS suite for community use.  This version is compatible with 9.2.  F&O are currently working on 9.3 and will provide us with a schedule and cost for that version.  When this information has been presented the Committee will compare the cost effectiveness of both versions of GIS.

 

Phone Survey of the Websites of Other Towns

Jennifer Naylor sent the website survey to 7 Towns. So far 4 have responded.  These results were handed to the Committee. Jennifer will continue to solicit this survey information.

 

Next Steps in the Process

 Begin the process of bringing someone on board either as a consultant or as a permanent IT manager. 

1. Find out how towns our size are staffed.

2. Prepare an IT plan and identify the areas of responsibility of an IT manager.

3. Draft a job description. Ken will write a job description for discussion and editing by the          Committee. 

4. Will the website be managed in house or outside since a Web Master must be there to manage      and maintain the site

5. Identify the needs of the Town for long term continuity after the IT Com. is disbanded.  Do         we need the IT manager to be full time or part time after the systems are in place? If so, at what level?

 

Our next meeting will be on Aug. 27th.  We will invite a website provider to make a presentation and hear from the Town auditors.  On Sept. 10th we will have interviews with the Fire Marshall and another website provider.

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:10PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Joan Vaughan, Secretary