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Council committee advances Tyler Technologies cloud contract despite liability clause
Summary
The committee voted to forward Resolution R2505-28 allowing the mayor to sign an agreement with Tyler Technologies to move the Encode court software to the cloud, after discussing a limitation of liability clause and an attorney-fees provision.
The City of Gallatin Council Committee voted on May 27, 2025, to forward Resolution R2505-28 to the full council authorizing the mayor to sign a contract with Tyler Technologies to migrate the city's Encode court software to a cloud hosting arrangement.
Jennifer Lefever, chief information officer for the City of Gallatin, said the city has "a long standing relationship with Tyler Technologies" and that Encode "runs our court system software." She told the committee talks with the vendor and legal departments did not resolve the city's concerns about a limitation-of-liability clause, and noted Tyler's insurer had declined to remove the clause. Lefever said Tyler requested that the contract include an attorney-fees provision; she said she opposed that term.
A council member raised a question about the contract's treatment of third-party data centers. The council member said an uptime and data-protection paragraph mentioned Tyler's own data centers but did not clearly extend the same protections to a third-party host, and asked staff to confirm that third-party providers would be held to the same standards.
City staff replied that the contract contains an uptime clause that would entitle the city to a portion of fees back if Tyler failed to meet service levels; staff said they would check whether the clause explicitly binds third-party hosts to the same obligations. The committee also discussed the attorney-fees provision; one council member noted Tyler reinserted that term after learning the city planned to take the contract to council.
A motion to forward Resolution R2505-28 "with a mandate as per legal" passed by voice vote. The committee did not record a roll-call tally in the transcript provided. The resolution authorizes mayoral signature of the contract; staff said they will follow up with Tyler Technologies to confirm protections for third-party hosting environments and attempt to remove the attorney-fees term if possible.
