County staff present $64M TEBS operating budget plan; committee flags VPN and additional Copilot licenses for reconciliation

The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee reviewed the Technology and Enterprise Business Solutions (TEBS) FY26 operating budget and enhancements, including countywide artificial intelligence projects, a website redevelopment (Web 2) ongoing cost item, a proposed VPN replacement and cloud hosting, and several contract increases.

Dr. Torregas, County Council staff, told the committee that the executive submitted a $72,000,000 TEBS request but that about $8,500,000 of that request is a public-safety component being handled by the joint GEO and Public Safety committees; the committee therefore focused on approximately $64,000,000 in non–public-safety TEBS spending.

Gail Roper, director of TEBS, described the county's AI approach as one “centered on service delivery” and emphasized a risk‑aware rollout. Roper said TEBS has created an AI Center of Excellence to work with department heads, review operational needs and process bottlenecks, and develop an "AI portfolio" of initiatives intended to improve county service delivery while protecting resident data. Shaina Taki, TEBS change‑management lead, added that TEBS has benchmarked with other jurisdictions, produced AI guidelines and action plans, and begun focused product analyses and trainings.

One major AI example is Monty, the county’s MC311 chatbot. TEBS reported that the Monty 2.0 upgrade now supports more than 100 languages, enables two‑way dynamic conversations, expands from roughly 20 to about 3,000 potential conversation paths, and that the system handled “about 20,000-plus conversations in 2025,” with resident feedback channels used daily to refine responses. TEBS also said the county has run AI literacy training and is launching targeted Copilot trainings tied to Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 licensing.

Licensing and contract questions attracted particular attention. TEBS asked the committee to consider several ongoing and one‑time increases: an iBoss cloud/licensing item to monitor county data leaving internal systems; a VPN replacement and associated cloud hosting to replace near‑end‑of‑life VPN infrastructure; ongoing Microsoft enterprise agreement costs and additional Microsoft Copilot (Copilot for M365) licenses; and multiple contract increases for vendors including Varonis, Equinix, EagleView/Pictometry and others.

Committee discussion and decisions - VPN replacement: TEBS requested $440,000 to begin replacement of aging VPN infrastructure. The committee agreed to add the VPN item to the reconciliation list while TEBS provides a more detailed migration schedule and options for phasing costs. - Microsoft Copilot licenses: TEBS described a multistage Copilot pilot already funded from internal TEBS resources (phase 1: roughly 300 pilot licenses, 60 currently committed to trained users) and requested additional funding to expand deployment (phase 2). TEBS characterized the full Copilot request as roughly $434,000 (approximately $308,000 for phase‑1 continuation plus about $126,000 for phase 2). The committee agreed to place the phase‑2 $126,000 request on reconciliation for review before final council action. - Device/client management and licensing: the county's device/client management NDA budget was presented at $18.1 million (up about $2 million from the prior year). TEBS attributed the increase to rising licensing costs (including the Microsoft enterprise agreement) and to ongoing cloud license models. The office noted that many software purchases are now recurring licenses rather than one‑time installs. - Windows 10 extended support and SQL compliance: TEBS described necessary transitions and compliance licensing for Windows upgrades and Microsoft SQL Server licensing; Microsoft has billed for noncompliance that TEBS said must be addressed.

Web 2 and hosting TEBS reminded the committee that the Web 2 website redevelopment had previously been funded (total budget roughly $1.4 million), and that today’s review focused on ongoing hosting and licensing costs related to that project. The committee asked TEBS to provide a clearer breakdown of what remains workwise and any opportunities for savings now that the RFP and design work have advanced.

Security and data governance TEBS repeated that some requested increases — for example, iBoss licensing and private cloud storage — are intended to protect county data from being shared with unapproved public AI chat services and to give the security team greater visibility into county data flows.

Context and next steps Committee members repeatedly pressed TEBS for concrete timelines, training schedules and deployment plans that would let the council evaluate expected productivity gains or service improvements. TEBS said Copilot and Monty deployments will be tied to mandatory training and certification, with targeted Copilot trainings slated by the end of the month for pilot users. The committee also requested additional analyses about PC replacement schedules and costs (5‑year vs. 6‑ or 7‑year replacement cycles) and asked TEBS to provide estimated cost tradeoffs.

The committee did not adopt final budget votes on the TEBS items in this meeting; it placed the VPN replacement and the Copilot phase‑2 license request on the reconciliation list for further review before full‑council action.