Salt Lake City IMS seeks modest budget rise as communications, subscriptions drive costs

The Information Management Services (IMS) department presented the council with a proposed fiscal-year budget of $43,052,934 and outlined changes in staffing, contracts and centralized communications.

The budget, the department said, represents a roughly $2.5 million increase (about 6%) from the prior year, “in part from the citywide 4% cost of living adjustment for employees and the new employees that were approved in the past fiscal year,” and “about $1,300,000 in contractual increases,” Kira Luke, City Council member, told the chamber while introducing the IMS presentation.

IMS staff said much of the contractual increase reflects software-as-a-service subscriptions, though they reported vendor negotiations that reduced some year-over-year growth in those costs. “We’ve worked very hard, to work with vendors and set proper expectations as well as to look at, low cost options or better cost solutions for technology,” John Rand (director, Web and Media Services) told the council, describing a move from more expensive Adobe licenses to Canva to save money while maintaining design capacity.

Why it matters: IMS oversees the city’s internal technology, networks, data and public-facing digital communications. Council members pressed staff about how the department will use centralized tools to cut duplication, how staffing changes affect service levels and how new technologies such as artificial intelligence will be governed.

Key details and department priorities - Organizational layout: IMS described six divisions—innovation and project management; web and media services; citywide communications and engagement (which recently absorbed the mayor’s language-access program); IT support/help desk; infrastructure and cybersecurity; and data/analytics and GIS. Whitney Phillips is serving as acting data privacy manager pending a funded hire. - Staffing and programs: IMS said it shows part-time and seasonal employees in the budget and that the apprenticeship program will be restarted with eight positions to focus on stronger mentorship. The department proposed converting a part-time graphic-design position to full time to meet demand. - Cost control and licensing: Staff said the majority of recurring increases are contractual subscriptions and that centralizing licenses—rather than allowing distributed department purchases—both saves money and improves security and privacy governance. Rand gave a specific example: “The city had a large investment into Adobe’s creative suite ... what John Rand ... looked at was Canva, which also provides those things but at a cheaper cost, and so we’re migrating costs there.” - Communications and branding: Noel Wawkinshaw (IMS staff) described work to centralize communications and training for departmental communicators—monthly PIO, social media and engagement meetings, a brand and style guide, and engagement training—to reduce ad hoc “siloed” messaging across departments. - Web/content work: IMS said the Web 3 project emphasizes training content managers and improving content and accessibility before changing technology. “We didn’t want to change the technology per se on this,” Wawkinshaw said, adding the department is coaching content managers on clear writing and accessibility to improve searchability and usability. - Cybersecurity and .gov domains: Aaron Bentley, IMS Chief Information Officer, said state law required political subdivisions to use the .gov domain and that having city-controlled .gov addresses improves authenticity and phishing resilience. “When you can have that authenticity of this truly is a city ... that builds the trust,” Bentley said. - Artificial intelligence pilots and caution: IMS described several AI pilots and an effort to avoid broad license bloat. The department said it is piloting AI uses (for example, a total-compensation calculator built for Human Resources and Workday invoice handling) and preparing centralized policies. “We want to pilot specific use cases and show the return on investment. If there’s not a return on investment, then we don’t want to head that way,” Bentley said.

Questions and council concerns Council members pressed IMS on consolidation of overlapping project-management tools, utilization of software licenses, and where efficiencies could be found. Staff said they have moved toward named-user licensing and are auditing usage to reallocate or retire underused licenses. On project management, IMS pointed to centralization of Asana for communications teams and said project-management tools remain a citywide standardization priority.

Staffing and next steps IMS asked the council to approve the presented budget as a baseline and flagged policy questions for later discussion—especially the scope and governance of citywide communications and the ongoing rollout of AI and content-improvement work.

Ending note IMS emphasized its stated priority to improve content, centralize licensing and reduce duplicated software while continuing small, targeted pilots for new technology such as AI. Council members said they would continue follow-up on utilization, consolidation and clear guidance for departments.