Committee unanimously recommends Barnstable County IT budget after discussion of regional services, AI and cybersecurity

At a virtual meeting, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates' Standing Committee on Telecommunications and Energy voted unanimously to favorably recommend the proposed fiscal year 2026 information technology budget to the finance committee after a presentation from Billy Travis, director of information technology.

The recommendation came after Travis outlined an upcoming regional services assessment to define the structure and rate model for the county's long‑running regional IT services, plans to pilot outsourcing of tier‑1 help‑desk support to managed service providers, investments in cybersecurity and AI licensing, and ongoing efforts to consolidate cloud services and licensing to reduce costs. Delegate Harbor moved to favorably recommend the budget; Vice Chair Green seconded. A roll call showed all members voting yes and the motion passed unanimously.

The committee heard that the planned regional services assessment will examine whether the regional IT program should remain an internal department or become a separate entity and will review rates, services and the program’s long‑term sustainability. Travis said the county will seek outside help for that study and has applied previously for grants to fund it. “We would definitely wanna hire someone … and we would definitely go outside for this,” Travis said, describing the assessment as a budgeted item the department hopes to fund through a grant or other external sources.

Travis described a pilot plan to subcontract lower‑tier remote support to managed service providers so county staff can focus on projects and higher‑level work. “We could get into a pilot program for outsourcing tier 1 basic help desk support things to a managed service provider,” he said, adding that some Massachusetts towns have used that approach with positive results.

Committee members asked about on‑site support, revenue and staffing. Travis said the county currently provides both remote and on‑site services but that routine demand often requires a local point of contact; he cautioned that on‑site managed services remain difficult to provide at scale for some towns. He also said the department expects to exceed a revenue estimate of $275,000 for the current year and that it will “probably crack the 500,000 mark,” language he used to describe projected revenues.

On cybersecurity and AI, Travis said the department is working on data‑classification and access controls that use machine learning to limit who can view certain categories of information and to prevent data exfiltration. “These capabilities can allow us to intelligently classify information … whether it's transparency reasons for information requests or whether it's for just controlling access,” Travis said. He also said the county has internal pilots for AI note taking and is budgeting for AI licensing and professional services where needed. Travis noted caution about staff using personal AI accounts and the need for managed, secure tools.

Cloud consolidation and license management were presented as cost‑reduction priorities. Travis described shadow‑IT problems—where departments purchase their own tools—and said consolidation onto a single platform can reduce licensing costs and improve security and manageability. He cited DocuSign as an example where migrating some functions into the county’s enterprise systems could reduce external contract spending and estimated a possible reduction of about $40,000 a year by moving signature workflows into the county’s primary systems.

On fees and contracts, Travis said the department’s blended rate has tightened since the last contract framework revision, which he said dates to 2018. Contracts with towns vary by charter limits and run from one to five years; the department uses modular exhibits to bill for emergency or special project work. “That is basically one of the things I really want to get out of this regional services assessment: what we should be charging and how we should be charging it,” Travis said.

Travis described the county’s business continuity posture as primarily cloud‑based with geo‑redundant, government‑only data centers in the continental U.S., and an infrastructure described as CJIS‑capable. He said systems are hosted in data centers with primary facilities in Virginia and that, in past disruptions, staff were able to continue operations remotely.

After discussion, Delegate Harbor moved to favorably recommend the IT budget as presented to the finance committee; Vice Chair Green seconded. The committee took a roll call and recorded unanimous support. The chair then called for adjournment.

The committee’s recommendation moves the proposed FY2026 IT budget to the county finance committee for further review and action.