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IT department seeks to stabilize networks, inspect 25 towers and cut risk as tower revenue grows
Summary
Jackson’s interim IT director asked the council to approve internal reallocations to inspect 25 of 30 city communication towers, pursue alternative fiber providers for resiliency, upgrade servers and municipal court software, and bolster cybersecurity while aiming to increase tower revenue.
Interim Information Technology Director Nathan Slater told the City Council that the department is not asking for new money this year but will seek to rebalance existing funds to address deferred maintenance, vendor contracts and cybersecurity gaps as it works to increase tower revenue and improve systems.
Slater said Jackson operates 30 communication towers that now generate roughly $4.2 million a year and that deferred inspections and maintenance put the city at regulatory and operational risk. “When you get behind on inspections, you can be fined by the FCC up to $25,000 a day,” Slater said, and he told councilors that 25 of the 30 towers need maintenance, an effort he estimated would cost about $232,000.
Nut graf: The department outlined a three‑part plan: bring tower inspections and maintenance current, move selected on‑premise applications to cloud or commercial providers to reduce outage risk and cost, and upgrade aging server and application infrastructure — including time clocks and the municipal court system — to reduce daily operational disruptions.
Slater described revenue opportunity if towers are brought to contemporary standards, saying upgrades could increase tower lease revenue from the current level to as much as $4.5 million annually. He recommended evaluating additional vendors for tower maintenance (current contract cited at $164,000) and exploring commercial fiber operators to carry city traffic instead of the city operating a municipal fiber network.
On cybersecurity and servers, Slater said the city’s hardware is at or near end‑of‑warranty and needs refresh: “most vendors will recommend that you do a refresh every 3 to 5 years. We'll be on the 5 year period.” He identified a need to buy software and tools to improve defenses and to move critical services to a disaster‑recovery site; Slater said the department is analyzing a partnership with Jackson State University for off‑site recovery capacity.
He also reported staff shortages: the IT allocation funds 28 positions but the department currently has around 15 filled and about 13 vacancies. Slater said the department had lost five employees since he took the role and that vacancies were concentrated in applications development and server/cybersecurity roles.
Ending: Slater urged the council to support reallocation of existing funds to make tower and network repairs and to invest in infrastructure that will reduce recurring costs and operational risk; he said the long‑term goal is more stable revenue and fewer service outages.
