Englewood IT department presents three‑year technology plan; council flags cybersecurity and staffing needs

City of Englewood Information Technology leaders presented a three‑year strategic plan during a City Council study session, outlining priorities that include improving help‑desk service and staff training, strengthening cybersecurity, standardizing governance and capital planning, and expanding data governance and dashboards for decision making.

Joe Eisenbart, Director of Information Technology, described the plan as an effort "to put ourselves in position to support the long term needs of the city as it relates to technology." He said the department’s current capability is largely reactive and that the plan aims to move Englewood toward a documented, aligned and proactive IT function.

Plan structure and priority areas

The plan groups work into four outcome areas:

1) Elevate people and ignite innovation — improve help‑desk procedures, build a centralized knowledge base and increase training and self‑service tools so staff can resolve routine problems without wait time.

2) Next‑generation technology and security — adopt a layered cybersecurity approach (NIST‑aligned), create an incident‑response plan and develop business‑continuity programs. Brandon Brown, IT operations manager, said the department will contract for a cybersecurity plan and run penetration tests to identify gaps.

3) Maximize value and sustainability — standardize onboarding/offboarding, centralize vendor and contract management, implement consistent refresh cycles for hardware and software and pursue grant and alternative funding strategies for IT capital projects.

4) Drive data‑informed decisions — form a data governance committee, create a single visualization tool for dashboards and reports, and implement a formal request process for analytics work.

Current state and metrics

IT staff reported results from a user survey of city employees: roughly 60–63% of respondents said they were satisfied with IT overall or confident in help‑desk capability, while communication and time‑to‑resolve issues scored lower. The department’s internal maturity assessment ranked current operations at a low level, with a goal of reaching a higher, more aligned level by the end of the three‑year plan.

Staffing and near‑term asks

Eisenbart told council the IT group includes about 15 staff members across operations, business services and data analytics. Staff recommended adding specialized roles: in particular a cybersecurity engineer. Council members pressed for a quick external security assessment and penetration testing; Eisenbart said money has been set aside this year to contract for a cybersecurity plan and that the contractor would include scanning and testing to build the business case for permanent staff.

Council questions and AI

Council members asked whether short‑term contractors or long‑term hires are preferred. Staff said contractors are useful for short, discrete needs but that in‑house expertise creates continuity and deeper institutional knowledge. On artificial intelligence, staff said a measured rollout and city AI policy are in place; staff cautioned that AI adoption requires careful governance because models ingest data.

No formal vote

The session was informational; council did not vote. Several members urged a rapid external cybersecurity assessment and quicker progress on help‑desk responsiveness, while staff described a mix of immediate procurement for an external cyber assessment and multi‑year internal work to raise maturity.

Next steps

Staff will pursue contracting an external cybersecurity assessment, continue to develop SOPs and a training program, refine the project prioritization process and return with more detailed business cases and funding options for council consideration.

End note: Council members emphasized cybersecurity and requested that staff prioritize visible service improvements while advancing the longer strategic work.