Leavenworth County approves Exchange Online migration and paid email archiving

Leavenworth County commissioners on brief formal votes approved an Information Services (IS) contract to migrate county email to Microsoft Exchange Online and authorized a separate contract to preserve the county's existing journaled email archives.

County IT staff recommended awarding the Exchange Online migration to vendor ISG for an amount not to exceed $28,000 and asked the board to fund the first-year implementation from the county's equipment reserve. The board also approved a contract with ArcTitan (referred to in the meeting as ArcTitan) for email archiving — presented as a necessary duplicate of the county's current on-premises journaling — in an amount not to exceed $8,000, with the first year likewise coming from equipment reserve funds.

County IT staff explained the immediate need: Microsoft is phasing out the perpetual on‑premises licensing model the county had used for years and is moving to a subscription-only Exchange Online product. According to the IS presentation, that change requires a migration and a new paid archiving solution because Exchange Online does not support the county's previous journaling setup. County IT said the migration will preserve mailbox functionality while the archiving contract will retain the journaled copies the legal department currently queries for records requests and litigation discovery.

The board was told the implementation cost can be covered from funds already set aside in equipment reserves. County IT also proposed that, after the first year, the recurring subscription costs be allocated to the departments that use the mailboxes so the IS budget is not expected to permanently absorb the annual licensing increase.

Commissioners expressed concern about the ongoing annual cost and about mailbox growth raising future subscription bills. County IT staff described the long-term effect as an ongoing subscription expense that will rise if mailbox counts increase and said they plan to provide departments with a table showing mailbox counts and projected per-department costs.

The motions to award the Exchange Online project to ISG (not to exceed $28,000) and to authorize the ArcTitan archiving contract (not to exceed $8,000) were approved by the board in separate voice votes. The minutes show named 'aye' votes by Commissioner Culberson and by Commissioner Vanessa when present; the board's motion and second were made on the record and the chair declared the motions approved.

The county's legal and records-retention practices were discussed in the context of archiving. Staff noted that the county has been journaling inbound and outbound email since 2017 (with a prior period of journaling in the early 2000s), and that the County Attorney's Office and Sheriff’s Office currently are excluded from the journal at their request. The new archiving arrangement would continue the county's ability to query past messages for legal requests, subject to whatever retention policy the board later adopts.

Next steps noted by staff: begin the migration, import previously journaled mail into the new archive so legal discovery access is preserved, and return budgeting details on recurring subscription allocations to departments.

Ending: The board approved both contracts and instructed staff to follow up with department-level cost allocations and a records-retention policy proposal that will address how long different categories of email will be kept and how litigation holds will be handled.