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Delray Beach IT highlights disaster recovery, cybersecurity and digital services in budget briefing
Summary
Chief Technology Officer Jay Stacy described investments in disaster recovery, cybersecurity, cloud telephony, online permitting, and live-streaming, and said the department’s budget rose about 4% largely for personnel and overtime tied to meeting support.
Jay Stacy, Chief Technology Officer and Director of the Information Technology Department, told the commission on May 20 that the department has expanded services and infrastructure over the past five years and that most recent investments aim to ensure continuity and security.
Stacy described a hardened colocation arrangement in Tallahassee that mirrors mission-critical systems so the city can fail over if the local data center is lost to a disaster. “We are renting space in a hardened colocation center in Tallahassee, where we back up and mirror our mission critical systems,” Stacy said. He also said the department has moved to cloud-based telephony and issued laptops to office employees to support remote operations during disasters.
Stacy outlined the creation of an internal cybersecurity team and the hiring of an IT security manager after relying on outside consultants in earlier years. “We fired those consultants, hired our own IT security manager, and reorganized to build a team that actually does the work that we need to secure our systems,” he said. Stacy credited the technology team with implementing an online permitting solution, Adobe digital signatures, a time-and-attendance system, and the city mobile app. The city has been recognized two years running as a Top 10 Digital City by the Center for Digital Government, he said.
Budget-wise, Stacy said renegotiations and efficiencies helped contain costs but that employee compensation and overtime drove a net increase of about 4% overall. He said overtime rose partly because IT staff are supporting live streaming for the Downtown Development Authority and Community Redevelopment Agency meetings and will soon begin streaming code enforcement hearings.
Commissioners and the CTO discussed cost recovery and whether independent taxing authorities such as the DDA/CRA reimburse the city for meeting support. Stacy and city staff said cost-recovery arrangements vary by agency and that staff will follow up during budget preparations.
Stacy concluded by pointing commissioners to a list of recent IT projects in the backup material and offering to answer follow-up questions at the June 10 workshop.
