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Middletown council approves emergency IT purchases — network replacement and 200 desktop PCs
Summary
Council authorized emergency ordinances to buy network hardware and consulting services and to purchase 200 Dell desktop computers after IT migration issues slowed recovery from an attack; combined emergency spend totals $295,610.
Middletown City Council on Sept. 16 approved two emergency ordinances authorizing immediate IT purchases after the city's migration to a new virtual environment uncovered hardware incompatibilities and continued IT disruptions. City Manager Ashley Combs told council that during the migration staff found “incompatibilities with the existing core network components” and that “the new Dell switches were incompatible with current devices, necessitating immediate replacement.”
Council passed an ordinance to purchase network equipment and consulting services from Secure Cyber Inc. for a total cost of $151,010. In a separate emergency ordinance council approved the purchase of 200 Dell desktop computers and related consulting from Insight Public Sector Inc. for a total of $144,600. Combs said the desktop replacements were accelerated because many existing units cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 and Windows 10 is approaching end of life.
Both purchases were presented to council as first-reading emergency ordinances. Council moved and approved the measures on the floor that same night.
Combs and staff described operational impacts from recent IT disruptions — including temporary workarounds such as a city Gmail account and manual tracking for event-center clients — and said the emergency procurements are intended to restore systems and allow staff to resume normal operations. She said full fiscal detail and supplemental appropriations would follow once systems such as EventPro return to service.
The purchases were framed as urgent responses tied directly to the city's ongoing IT migration and cyber resilience work; staff said no alternative options were available within the project timelines.
