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Butte-Silver Bow IT director says department understaffed, prioritizes cybersecurity, GIS and pragmatic AI use
Summary
The county—s new IT director told the study commission that local government technology is behind private sector practice, that cybersecurity and staffing are top priorities, and that GIS and modest AI uses can improve efficiency if matched with sustainable funding and procurement.
Craig Germaine, the information technology director for Butte-Silver Bow County, told the study commission his team provides infrastructure, cybersecurity, device and user support, software procurement and data/voice communications for the city-county. "If it has a blinking light, I know that we'll support it," he said.
He described the county—s technology posture as uneven: some projects funded by ARPA have modernized emergency services and vehicle-mounted mobile data terminals, but the organization remains "about 15 years behind" typical private-sector deployment in some areas. He said common productivity tools such as Microsoft Teams often are underused and the county still relies on paper time sheets for payroll in some places.
Staffing and outsourcing: Germaine said his team supports roughly 500 city-county employees and that the ratio of IT staff to users constrains proactive modernization. He said hiring and retaining technical staff is difficult because private-sector salaries are higher. "For the Silver Bow, our IT team is about 30% underpaid compared to others around us," he said. The department relies on consultants for larger application development work; outsourcing can be expensive (private contractors may bill $200+ an hour) but sometimes is the most practical option because the county cannot match private wages for specialized skills.
Cybersecurity and resilience: Germaine said cybersecurity is a top priority. He described recent work with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other partners to audit systems and to plan for continuity. "We recently just went through Department of Homeland Security, cybersecurity infrastructure and security agency audit of our entire systems," he said, adding that some gaps remain but that plans are underway to improve resilience and continuity of services such as water in case of cyber incidents.
GIS, applications and AI: Germaine described opportunities for GIS expansion and said an "application development" capability is missing from the county—s IT structure; the department frequently contracts the work. He supported coordinated GIS work with planning and public works and said the county could use more web-based citizen reporting (pothole- or issue-reporting tools) to crowdsource maintenance needs. On artificial intelligence, he said early uses should focus on routine tasks and chatbots to speed public-service responses rather than speculative grand claims.
Ending: Germaine recommended retaining IT as a standalone department (it was recently moved out of finance and budget into equal standing with other departments) and said the county should pursue a balanced mix of strategic hires and targeted outsourcing to accelerate modernization while controlling costs.
