County IT staff recommended migrating public meetings from Zoom to Microsoft Teams to reduce disruptive participants and add enterprise authentication and security features.

Karen (IT staff) described Teams’ enterprise features, including stronger integration with the county’s Microsoft 365 subscription, multifactor authentication, and data-loss prevention that can reduce malicious or inappropriate content in public sessions. IT said the county is already paying for Microsoft licensing and can implement additional authentication steps so participants receive a time-limited code by email before joining, creating an extra hurdle for bad actors.

Staff proposed a staged rollout: training for users and two weeks of testing before switching meeting links, with a target to put Teams in place about two weeks after the meeting. Commissioners supported pursuing the migration to reduce disruptions and improve compliance and said staff should schedule training and public notice.

IT also reported the county’s historical Zoom spend over several years and suggested a migration could be managed within existing licensing. No immediate procurement action was requested; staff will return with an implementation schedule and training plan.