MC (IT director) told the Champaign County Board that the county’s information-technology budget is largely steady year-to-year but that rising costs and changing vendor models will require new recurring expenditures and additional staffing.

MC said many software vendors are moving away from perpetual licenses to subscription models, increasing recurring costs for tools the county has historically purchased once. He also described an ongoing need for a county-wide off-site disaster recovery system beyond the a s 400 backup that supports court-related infrastructure. "Next year, we will be moving forward with getting a system in place for the large majority of the remainder of our infrastructure," MC said.

MC said the county will implement more granular cybersecurity protections to block devices that are unpatched or lack proper endpoint protection. He said the department is developing an AI policy and vetting specific AI offerings so departments can use approved services rather than ad-hoc tools.

A major concern for MC is compensation and staffing. He said county IT salaries are below local market rates (city and university) and that several recent departures were to local government agencies that paid roughly 18% more. "It is unfair for them to be able to be providing the support that they are day in and day out, and their compensation is under market rate," MC said. He asked the board to consider pay-range adjustments to retain staff and cited prolonged vacancies that slowed IT operations.

MC also described recent completed projects, including replacing the county’s copier fleet and implementing a new storage system for server infrastructure, and said the department will explore a new website platform to meet accessibility requirements. No formal budget vote was taken during the hearing.