Manville personnel chief seeks $22,000 HR system; IT seeks remote-management suite

Chad Dumont, the city of Manville personnel director, asked the City Council on July 21 to approve two technology items for the personnel department: a basic human-resources information system (HRIS) at about $22,000 per year, and a remote management and monitoring suite for the city’s information systems with a roughly $35,000 implementation cost and about $25,000–$26,000 in annual fees.

Dumont told council members the HRIS would give the department applicant-tracking, onboarding, secure cloud document storage and mass communications functions that are currently managed by Word and Excel. “By having this system in place, we’ll be able to defer adding another employee possibly for another year,” Dumont said.

The remote management and monitoring suite would let IT staff remotely access and manage workstations, improve cybersecurity posture and speed responses to outages, Dumont said. He described the RMM as a larger, more expensive purchase intended to reduce truck-rolls and strengthen security across the city’s workstations.

Why it matters: Dumont said the HRIS would reduce manual work and improve record security, while the RMM would support the city’s expanding digital infrastructure and the new police station. Council members pressed for details about recurring costs, ROI and whether the systems integrate with existing payroll and finance systems.

Council reaction and next steps: Councilman Bonner asked whether the RMM’s $35,000 line was a one‑time cost (it is) and whether ongoing fees would apply (yes). Councilwoman Sarmiento asked whether lower‑cost alternatives had been evaluated; Dumont said the vendor shown was “bare bones” and full-featured competitors could cost $48,000–$50,000 for purchase. Councilmember Lands asked about grants to offset implementation costs; the city’s IT manager said he had not yet explored grant avenues but would do so. City Manager Dan Johnson and IT staff agreed to follow up on integration testing with existing finance/payroll systems and to check for grant or cost‑sharing opportunities.

Dumont described recent personnel accomplishments — processing 22 new hires, cutting separations by about one‑third and adding employee wellness days — and reiterated that the HRIS was requested to preserve institutional knowledge as employees age into retirement. He said the personnel division currently has six staff members, including two IT positions that support internal customers.

Council members asked the personnel and IT teams to provide more detail on (1) how much staff time the HRIS would save, (2) whether the HRIS integrates via API with the city’s payroll system, and (3) whether portions of the RMM implementation could be done remotely to lower on‑site costs. Dumont and the IT manager said they would return with those specifics as the budget process proceeds.

Ending: Councilmembers did not take a final appropriation at the workshop; staff will provide integration testing information, vendor comparisons and grant research as part of the upcoming budget deliberations.