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County IT seeks to hold operating budget flat while funding key security and compliance items
Summary
Black Hawk County IT proposed a near-zero operating increase for FY26 by staggering capital replacements, and flagged priorities including firewalls for sheriff compliance, CJIS logging software, subscription renewals, and options for disposal or auction of retired equipment.
Al (IT director) told supervisors the Information Technology department plans to keep its overall FY26 operating budget flat by reallocating internal subscriptions and staggering equipment replacement cycles while pressing for specific capital and security investments.
Al said the department closed more than 1,200 help-desk tickets in the current fiscal year to date and emphasized that many capital replacements are cyclic: “general rule is 5 years for both computers,” he said, adding desktops sometimes stretch to six years. The IT director said ARPA funds purchased many laptops in recent years and the department is staggering replacements to avoid a large one-year spike.
Key FY26 IT items discussed included: a reduced capital request after a software subscription end date was pushed back; $25,000–$35,000 annual replacement planning for rolling capital refreshes; purchase of two firewalls (main and backup) for the sheriff’s office to meet procedures compliance; and investment in logging software to convert voluminous security logs into usable alerts to meet CJIS-related requirements. On logging, Al said current logs produce pages that are “mind numbing” and argued software is needed for efficient review.
The board and IT staff also discussed options for disposing of retired equipment. IT said drives would be wiped or removed and recommended auctioning surplus devices or offering them for sale to the public-surplus auction; supervisors cautioned about state-auditor directives that limit direct donations and recommended exploring auctioning or contracts for services. Supervisors asked if old equipment could be transferred to nonprofits; the auditor’s office said disposal for sale or auction was allowable and donation rules require more formal procedures.
IT noted a $127,000 past project for laptops and peripherals and characterized some forthcoming items—such as smaller access-point subscriptions, fiber replacement and sheriff firewalls—as maintenance or compliance-related rather than discretionary. Staff asked the board to consider funding a CJIS-compliant logging solution as an operational priority; no formal action was taken during the session.
