Johnson County officials presented a memorandum of understanding on Jan. 9 to allow the Johnson County Park and Recreation District to use the county’s Samaritan volunteer-management software, with JCPRD covering licensing and enhancement costs.

Bill Nixon, Department of Technology, told the Board of County Commissioners the county has used Samaritan since 2017 and that the proposed MOU would let Parks reuse the existing system “with no cost to the county.” He said DTI would manage the subscription and technical support while Parks would manage its own licenses and enhancements. The item also asks that the county manager or a designee be authorized to execute future renewals or nonmaterial changes to the MOU.

The MOU would require Parks to absorb the cost of its subscription, Nixon said. In response to a question from Commissioner Ashcraft, Nixon said multiple county departments already use Samaritan, “3 or 4 departments,” and that the library does not, to his knowledge. The item was presented for inclusion on the Jan. 16 agenda; no formal vote was recorded during the Jan. 9 agenda review.

If approved at a future meeting, the MOU would make the county’s existing Samaritan deployment available to JCPRD and give DTI responsibility for vendor management and technical updates while leaving financial responsibility for subscription and enhancements with Parks.

The item was read as part of the agenda review; commissioners raised no substantive objections at the Jan. 9 meeting.