Westchester IT chief outlines cybersecurity focus, $62,000 capital plan and pilot AI use

Westchester Borough IT staff reported Sept. 9 that cybersecurity now accounts for roughly half of the department's operating work and that next year's capital budget is largely dedicated to leases and scheduled replacements. Bill Mann presented the quarterly report and a preliminary 2026 budget to the Act Committee.

Mann said cybersecurity has become "40 to 50% of what we do" and described layered protections the borough uses, including advanced threat protection, automated email-gateway defenses and monthly phishing tests. He told the committee a July 21 outage tied to the borough's Barracuda email gateway left email inaccessible between roughly 4:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. but that "no email was lost."

The report listed operational metrics and recent projects. Mann said the IT help desk averaged 73 tickets per month (576 between January and August), the department completed audio upgrades in the council chambers, finished most Windows 11 upgrades, installed access-control card readers on four Chestnut Street Garage doors, and helped install in-car video and body cameras for police vehicles. He also described ongoing work with Parks & Recreation on its web page, delivery and setup of four handheld devices for parking enforcement and repairs to fiber and parking-garage cameras.

Committee members asked how long some cameras were out; Mann said some roof cameras had been out for months and that the lane cameras at the Chestnut Street garage were disabled by a bad fiber connection that ultimately cost about $1,200 to repair. He credited a staff member, Jeff, for organizing networking equipment in local garages and addressing camera failures.

Mann presented the department's capital plan and said the 2026 capital line sits at roughly $62,000, up from about $50,000 the prior year, with the increase attributable mostly to lease payments for virtual servers and audio improvements and to ongoing scheduled workstation replacements. He said the borough manages more than 130 workstations across departments and that the police department alone uses 40 to 50 stations. Mann described a multi-year strategy to replace equipment on schedule rather than facing large, unexpected replacements.

On software and emerging technology, Mann said the borough's environment is Microsoft 365-based and that any pilot AI product would be Microsoft Copilot. "The product that for us would be Microsoft's Copilot," he said, adding the borough is testing Copilot with staff who do a lot of document review and research. Mann cautioned that licensing costs are significant: "it's many $100 a year per person," and the department must prioritize who receives access.

Mann outlined backup and disaster recovery capabilities: on-premises backups complemented by cloud-to-cloud backups for Microsoft services and the ability to spin up servers in the cloud following a failure. He described multi-ISP connectivity, redundant firewalls and VPN appliances at borough facilities and remote-support tools used for overnight troubleshooting.

The committee heard that cybersecurity spending makes up roughly half of the IT operations budget and that operational spending for core services and licenses will rise modestly in 2026, driven in part by Microsoft licensing increases. Mann also noted capital strategies favor three-year leases with a possible dollar buyout at lease-end to extend equipment life and warranties.

The presentation concluded with an invitation for questions; committee members thanked Mann for the detail. No formal action on the 2026 budget occurred at the Sept. 9 meeting; Mann said the numbers will be part of the ongoing budget process.

Ending: Mann said the department will continue planned camera consolidation with Public Works and wastewater plants, continue cybersecurity awareness work (including October awareness activities) and proceed with the 2026 budget timeline for further committee review.