Administrative services outlines city finance, court, utilities and IT operations in annual update

Administrative Services director Mia Narris and department staff presented an overview of the department's work and the city's fiscal year results at the Aug. 19 council meeting, highlighting finance, records, utilities billing, municipal court, and information technology operations. Narris told the council the city operates a $38 million budget and manages 31 cost centers, noting audit and budget season overlap. Deputy City Treasurer Reva Godden summarized utility billing work: a large meter migration of 3,064 meters, 5,000 utility accounts served monthly and a recent online payments upgrade that added autopay and multilingual support. Court administrator Megan (last name in packet) reported the municipal court docketed 1,225 new cases in the year, had 7,005 active cases and an outstanding fine balance exceeding $1.1 million; staff said a small fraction of defendants account for a large share of unpaid fines. Network Administrator Tim Hugus reviewed IT infrastructure: supporting 112 full-time employees across 11 city buildings, 5 towers and multiple high-capacity radio links, approximately 40 virtual servers and 50 TB of storage. He described recent projects including the meter migration support, rollout of mobile data terminals in police vehicles, and a 23-camera airport terminal installation. Narris closed by noting the department recorded zero audit findings, migrated meters and improved public access to information, but cited ongoing challenges in records digitization, delinquent accounts management and continued IT upgrades. Council praised the presentation and thanked staff; staff said they would continue working on records management automation, delinquent account strategies and cybersecurity/IT upgrades.