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Terrell IT staff report progress on digital front door, ticketing and cybersecurity; council asks for private briefing on ransomware defenses
Summary
Assistant city manager and contracted CIOs gave an annual IT update: about 2,460 tickets handled last year, average resolution time ~22 hours, 64% first‑contact resolution; Digital Front Door and Tyler/Munis milestones reached; council asked staff for a closed briefing on ransomware preparedness.
Terrell’s IT contractor and virtual chief information officer briefed the council on Feb. 11 about a year of infrastructure and application work, the city’s ticketing metrics and next steps in the Digital Front Door (DFD) program.
Assistant City Manager Mark Mills introduced John Cross, the city’s virtual CIO, and Trace Brown of True North, the contracted IT services provider. Cross told council the team processed roughly 2,400–2,500 IT tickets in the last year (about 10 per day) with an average resolution time of about 22 hours and a first‑contact resolution rate of about 64%. Staff said the organization meets its service‑level targets (SLA) about 99% of the time because many tickets are low‑severity and have multi‑day resolution windows.
Cross summarized infrastructure work completed since the vendor relationship began: Sharp multifunction printer deployment and scanning, Adobe forms and e‑forms on the city website, new laptops and server infrastructure at City Hall and the Police Department, replacement of PD security cameras, implementation of Axon body cameras, Spectrum VOIP for PD, firewall upgrades at water and wastewater facilities, replacement of SCADA at water and wastewater, wireless overhauls and RFID and career center digital infrastructure at the depot.
The Digital Front Door program remains the city’s major enterprise application effort, the presentation said. Milestones reported included: courts and court encode modules went live Oct. 2023; Munis Financials went live Jan. 2024; human capital management (HCM) and advanced scheduling projects are in progress. Cross said vendor rationalization reduced redundant applications and simplified support.
Council asked directly about cybersecurity and a recent ransomware example affecting another city. Cross said specific technical defenses should not be discussed in open session and offered a closed briefing; he also cited a CISA observation that attackers often dwell in networks for months before demanding ransom and noted cybersecurity remains an evolving, high‑priority area.
Councilmembers asked for clarification about help with city‑owned devices (iPads, laptops), staffing structure (about 4 full‑time equivalent technicians across several staff, with escalation to Trace Brown or Cross) and metrics reporting. Staff offered to produce more granular ticketing and SLA dashboards on request and to meet with council in a closed session to discuss detailed cybersecurity posture and mitigations.
