Hemet council receives 10-year IT capital-replacement plan calling for about $1M annual set-aside and more staff

City IT staff and consultants from Client First presented a multi-year technology sustainability plan on Nov. 12 that outlines equipment-replacement schedules, staffing gaps and cybersecurity priorities.

Tom Jacobson of Client First summarized the methodology and benchmarks and told the council the plan’s 10‑year capital-replacement total is "a touch over $10,000,000," which the consultants said would be best managed by an annual set-aside of roughly $1,000,000. IT Manager Scott Underwood described projects in progress (server and firewall replacements, Office migration, telephone system, ArcGIS and Laserfiche upgrades, and council-chamber audiovisual work) and said the department currently operates with four staffers.

Jacobson said benchmarking across peer cities shows Hemet is under-resourced: "Our long term staffing recommendation would be a total IT staff of 7, 1 in GIS." The consultants recommended hiring a systems engineer in year one and a business-systems analyst after ERP and permitting systems are stabilized to help departments get more value from existing applications.

Council members pressed for timing and operational detail. Council member Mayles urged rapid hiring: "I think hiring 1 person January, February may cost us, what, a couple 100,000 a year or something. I mean, it's important to make sure we're staffed properly." Staff estimated about 83 replacement computers remain to be deployed and said many cybersecurity items (multi-factor authentication, dark-web scanning, backups) are scheduled to complete by month’s end.

Council received and filed the report; staff said the plan will inform the upcoming budget process and that additional procurement or staffing changes would return to council for approval.