Keith County commissioners and multiple county offices told representatives from IT contractor 5 Nines at a public session that recurring outages, equipment delivered but not installed, and a fractured ticketing process have left staff unable to work for hours or days.

County officials said the outages have affected court operations, election and records work, and routine office productivity, and that some equipment paid for by the county remained in storage for months without being installed. "I don't even use you guys anymore," the County Attorney told 5 Nines, describing repeated multiweek delays and the need to hire outside vendors for urgent repairs.

The dispute began after commissioners moved a portion of the meeting into the courtroom for public complaints about 5 Nines. County staff recounted examples including printers that would not print for weeks, computers delivered without power cords or left unprovisioned, and user accounts split across two sign‑in addresses so employees could not access email or licensed software on multiple desktops.

Jacob, a 5 Nines representative, told the board that the company installs and stages equipment differently depending on whether a client requires payment on delivery. "It's comprised of, obviously, your primary engineer. It was Mark. It's now Dustin. And then underneath him, we have our field engineers," Jacob said, explaining field staffing. He acknowledged communication gaps and said the company was changing its call routing and support teams to address the county's complaints.

Over the meeting, commissioners and staff pressed 5 Nines on several recurring problems: tickets closed after being escalated with no visible follow‑up for the caller; on‑site visits that ended before additional outstanding issues were documented; and software licensing and driver problems that left scanners and specialty court printers inoperable. Staff said these problems were not isolated and that they had accumulated over roughly three years, with the pace worsening after the departure of prior local tech staff.

In response, 5 Nines agreed to take immediate operational steps: designate a small team of primary contacts for Keith County support (named by 5 Nines as Matthew, Kyla and Jack), change automatic call routing so calls from county lines go to that group, and establish a clearer escalation path to the company's primary engineering team. Jacob also said the Kearney service group (the company's regional field team) would be the source of on‑site engineers who respond to escalations.

County leaders asked for at least one regularly scheduled on‑site day each week or more frequent visits until the backlog is cleared. Commissioners said they will follow up privately with 5 Nines to convert those operational commitments into a concrete schedule and to confirm who will be the single points of contact for county offices during business hours.

The group also discussed a contract/payment friction point: county policy and state procurement law require paying for certain goods only after they are installed and operational. 5 Nines said it sometimes stages equipment after payment is received, which has complicated pre‑staging. County officials told 5 Nines they would not alter the county's payment rules; both sides said they would continue talks to avoid equipment sitting undelivered in county storage.

County commissioners said they will monitor whether the newly named contacts and the adjusted routing resolve the frequent service failures. Staff urged the company to document ticket life cycles more clearly so closed tickets and escalations remain trackable by county staff.

If the operational changes do not improve service in a short time, commissioners said they will consider alternatives, including replacing the vendor or purchasing more local, on‑site support.