Homewood IT presents staffing add, equipment refresh and Laserfiche expansion in budget preview

Brandon Sims, an information-technology staff member, told the Homewood City finance committee on Sept. 18 that the IT department plans to request staffing and capital funding in the upcoming budget cycle, including one additional PC/network technician, consolidation of copier contracts and related rental/click charges, lifecycle hardware replacement across the city and software license purchases.

Sims said the additional PC/network technician would serve as a frontline help‑desk person dedicated to answering tickets so that existing senior staff can focus on infrastructure. He explained several items that have migrated into IT’s budget, including full rental and maintenance costs for copiers (the citywide rental/click costs were presented as about $70,000), and a document‑management system (Laserfiche) that IT will consolidate and expand to host archives and deliver forms/workflows for staff and public-facing processes.

For capital requests, Sims described a lifecycle plan: $5,000 for monitors, ongoing desktop and laptop replacements to move the city to a five‑year replacement cycle (he said the plan would replace roughly 60 units per year and that the city has about 450 total units), and funds to replace remaining old network switches and access points across city facilities. He said vendor quotes informed security‑camera replacement estimates for City Hall; unit counts were not specified in the meeting.

Sims described data-center UPS/battery maintenance (previously funded by the fire department for a large UPS at the police department) and smaller backup batteries and UPS devices for key locations. Wireless communications costs (cell phone service) would be moved largely into IT’s budget for Verizon accounts, while AT&T FirstNet lines for first responders remain separate. He said some library and other printers remain standalone and were handled separately.

On software and licensing, Sims requested approximately $24,000 for Microsoft CAL licenses to bring server endpoint licensing into compliance and $18,000 for a Laserfiche forms/professional add‑on to enable more automated workflows for contract management and agenda submission. He said Laserfiche was partially configured previously and the add‑on would allow fuller use of the system.

Sims said the city is transitioning most servers to virtual clusters and needs one additional replacement node at the police cluster to complete a refresh cycle. He described plans to inventory tools and coordinate with the vehicle shop on shared inventory practices.

Committee members asked whether consolidating copier contracts would yield better pricing; Sims said most copiers were already on the same contract and the net change to pricing was small, though some per‑unit costs fell slightly. The committee discussed timing and lifecycle assumptions; Sims said network equipment should last five years, possibly seven to eight, and the capital need should decline in subsequent years.

No formal approvals were made; the presentation was a budget‑preview discussion to inform upcoming budget hearings.

Ending

IT staff asked committee members to include the staffing and capital items in the budget discussion and to allow IT to proceed with vendor quotes and licensing purchases as the budget process advances.