Information Technology Director Chris Polthal briefed the finance committee on Oct. 16 about 2025 accomplishments and 2026 priorities, highlighting public-safety systems and security policies.

Polthal said the city has executed the CAD vendor contract and will bring the records-management (RMS) component to the committee in November; the vendor selected for CAD/RMS is CentralSquare with an integrated solution the city prefers. He said the RMS/CAD project is a multi-year effort and the full implementation will span more than one year.

Polthal reported a major lifecycle accomplishment: he said the department replaced nearly all Windows 10 devices before the operating system’s end-of-life, reducing risk from unsupported systems. He also described a plan for IT policies aligned to the Center for Internet Security (CIS) “implementation group 1” as a 2026 priority and said staff will review and renegotiate high-cost software contracts for multi-year terms to control annual maintenance increases.

Polthal noted the IT operating budget includes hardware and enterprise software support for all city departments and that negotiating multi-year maintenance terms is expected to lower future year escalation.