Commission approves GIS licensing agreements and cybersecurity membership; IT to replace failed server part

The Franklin County Commission approved cooperative licensing agreements allowing private vendors to use county GIS data and authorized a membership purchase for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) to support county cybersecurity.

Commission Order 2025-195 authorized a limited license agreement with Tyler Technologies for county GIS data, and Commission Order 2025-196 authorized a similar limited license with Mapping Solutions. During discussion, Richard Oberschmidt noted rising county costs for gathering GIS information and said, "if it cost us more to gather this information, then, obviously, we should be compensated in a in a The county." County officials discussed adjusting fees in future licensing cycles to reflect rising costs.

The commission also approved Commission Order 2025-198 to purchase MS-ISAC membership, a subscription that county IT staff said costs roughly $2,000 per year after federal budget changes converted prior free services to a subscription model. Chuck, an IT staff member, described the membership as providing value through vendor discounts: "We've basically received $25,000 a year off the cost for our antivirus product," and he called the membership "a return on investment." The commission approved the membership by voice vote.

Separately, county IT staff reported a failed server backplane and said a replacement part costing approximately $370 has been ordered and should arrive next week; staff plan a short outage to install the part and return the server to service.

All three procurement items were approved by the commission; no amendments or roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript.