Council members questioned a personnel and salary item in the city'9s MIS department that would establish or fill a chief information/security officer position with a proposed salary in the neighborhood of $136,000.

City staff said the position is budgeted and was created to modernize cybersecurity work that older MIS job titles do not reflect. "This position was created last year. So it's been vacant for a little over a year now," a city staff member said, and added that the title was intended to match modern responsibilities and that comparable private-sector compensation can exceed $200,000.

Council members pressed staff on whether responsibilities could be consolidated into existing positions to save money. "Why can't we just change the title to include both where he's doing what he was doing, including cybersecurity? I'm just trying to understand if we can consolidate positions and give them added responsibilities," one council member asked. Staff replied that many existing MIS job titles are antiquated and do not align with modern cybersecurity responsibilities; the proposed title is meant to reflect current duties.

Staff said the administration planned to appoint an internal candidate, Jim Seguin, to the role and described him as having worked for the city for years. The staff presentation noted the city had invested "over $2,000,000 in ARPA funding just to bolster our cybersecurity efforts," and staff said that the specialized position and pay reflect efforts to protect city systems.

Council members asked how long the position had been vacant and whether the department had been operating sufficiently while the role remained unfilled. Staff answered that while the work had been ongoing, the formal title and compensation were being updated to match contemporary responsibilities and retention needs.

The discussion did not record a formal vote or adoption in the supplied transcript; the item was referred to finance/committee per the meeting's agenda routing notes.

Actions proposed in the discussion were limited to consideration of the budgeted position and a request for additional context on consolidation of duties and the salary proposal.