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IT director outlines "digital city" investments: fiber, Workday ERP and stronger cybersecurity
Summary
IT Director Stubenek presented the 2026 IT priorities: citywide fiber and Wi-Fi projects (ARPA-funded), Workday selected for Enterprise Resource Planning with a fall 2026 go-live, and layered cybersecurity investments including SIEM, endpoint detection and an AI spam filter.
The city's information-technology director presented the 2026 IT budget and strategic priorities July 23, describing a mix of infrastructure, software and security investments the city says will support operations across departments.
Why it matters: IT investments underpin multiple city services, including water and wastewater operations, public safety, payroll, permits and online payments. The city said ARPA funds enabled several near-term infrastructure projects and that the proposed 2026 investments will support an ERP modernization, protections against rising cyber threats, and expanded public Wi-Fi.
Major items and schedule: Director Stubenek said the IT team is six people (including an intern) with a vacant senior network-engineer position. Key 2025'26 projects include expanding fiber (Taylor Park and public-safety training center already connected), completing Main Street Wi-Fi by fall construction season, redundant fiber at Fire Stations 2 and 3, and new fiber at Buttermilk Park to support 2026 camera deployment. Stubenek said city staff selected Workday as the ERP vendor and AVAP as the implementation partner with a project kickoff in July and an expected go-live in fall 2026.
Cybersecurity and AI: Stubenek said the city is deploying a layered defense: a security information and event management (SIEM) system that analyzes logs at scale (the presentation cited roughly 1.1 billion logs per month), endpoint detection and response tools to isolate threats, and an AI-powered spam filter that she said had ingested 100,000 emails since April and flagged approximately 1,550 phishing attempts and 250 malware messages. She emphasized continuous employee training, phishing simulations, and that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility across departments.
Operations and life-cycle work: The director described citywide Windows 11 and Office 365 adoption, mobile device deployments for first responders and field crews, interview-room upgrades, and a cabling cleanup at the primary data center. Stubenek said ARPA supported many of the recent infrastructure upgrades and recommended continuing a life-cycle replacement program for network hardware.
Questions and next steps: Council members asked about AI use and lifecycle expectations for hardware; Stubenek said the city is using multiple AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot for select users and vendor AI in security products, and aims for a roughly seven-year lifecycle for network equipment with spares on hand. The presentation was informational; no council action was taken during the meeting.
