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Bannock County IT director outlines budget changes, proposes software swap to save ongoing costs
Summary
Chief Technical Officer Adam McKinney presented the county IT budget, detailing a eliminated programmer position, line-item adjustments for supplies and maintenance, and a planned switch from Sophos to SentinelOne projected to reduce annual software costs by about $9,000.
Chief Technical Officer Adam McKinney presented Bannock County’s information-technology budget during the commission’s budget hearing, describing personnel and software changes intended to reduce recurring costs while preserving service.
McKinney said he did not backfill a programmer/system-analyst position and “I've taken over the role, duties for that role, to save us some well needed money in the department.” He summarized several line-item changes: increasing the computer-supplies line from its historical $10,000 to $15,000 to cover rising hardware prices and web-hosting costs, trimming general office-operating supplies, and shifting some maintenance and software costs between lines to offset increases.
The most significant recurring saving McKinney proposed is replacing the county’s Sophos antivirus deployment with SentinelOne in September, after elections, which he said would reduce the software line by about $10,000 annually and “actually gives us quite a bit more stuff for the money.” He told commissioners the SentinelOne vendor will provide a 30‑day stand-up period before the county pays the first year of service.
McKinney described server- and storage-related requests for property acquisition and maintenance: an upgrade to the county’s Dell PowerStore so the existing hardware can serve another two to four years, and a planned move from an on-premises iLAN backup to “Amazon Lehi Service backup,” which he said should lower costs. He also asked for 80 standalone copies of Office (to replace Office 2019 installations) in addition to about 60 existing Office 365 seats, arguing Office 2019 and Windows 10 will reach end of life in October and must be replaced across the network.
On telephone and network costs, McKinney said replacing a copper PRI at the sheriff’s office with SIP service will increase some costs (he cited a roughly $200-per-month rise on one line), but that purchasing fiber to replace the PRI would require an upfront payment that could save money long term. He also described reducing an external hardware-maintenance contract by $12,000 after the county began banking spare devices and using an on-call vendor, and noted ongoing internet service is under contract through 2028.
McKinney said the IT budget presented represents an overall 11% decrease from the prior year’s IT line, driven by software changes and the reduced phone-maintenance contract. Commissioners asked follow-up questions about the county’s computer replacement cycle; McKinney said the county is in year four of a multi-year replacement effort and is not requesting desktop replacements this budget year.
No formal vote or motion was taken during the presentation; commissioners requested the department provide backup documents and said the IT budget packet would be posted as a public PDF with department requests.
