Adams County Commissioners authorize plan to migrate non‑county IT services while preserving public‑safety systems
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Summary
After a multi-hour presentation by IT Director Mike Brown, the commissioners voted to begin moving non‑county entities (including the cities of Decatur and Geneva) off county-managed operational IT support while maintaining county infrastructure for law enforcement and backup hosting; staff were directed to develop interlocal agreements and billing plans.
Adams County commissioners voted to authorize a plan to separate non‑county municipal and special‑district IT support from the county’s operational help desk while continuing to host servers and backup systems in the county data center.
IT Director Mike Brown told the board he completed a months‑long state survey and outside security review that exposed insurance and operational risks from supporting many external entities under the county’s systems. “It was 92 pages long,” Brown said, summarizing the assessment and saying outside vendors recommended clearer separation to reduce exposure and contractual ambiguity.
Brown said cities and towns such as Geneva and Decatur currently rely on county network infrastructure and that police departments must remain connected to county systems because they use public‑safety software located behind the county firewall. He proposed that non‑emergency municipal services move to vendor‑managed support while the county continues to host servers, backup systems and critical power and cooling infrastructure. Brown named two local vendors he has worked with — ESI and Innovative Integration — as possible partners for a migration and turnkey support.
Commissioners debated cost and complexity. Commissioner Stan said the activity would reduce the county team’s billable tracking and lighten staff workload; Commissioner Doug cautioned about the ongoing hardware and replacement costs for the county data center. Brown said charges for cities would be usage‑based and likely modest because those municipalities use relatively little compute capacity.
The board’s instructed staff to begin planning the separations, draft interlocal agreements and present a timeline and billing options. The motion as clarified required county infrastructure to be preserved for Adams County government and emergency services and recommended a target separation window for non‑county entities; the motion was seconded and passed.
Next steps include staff drafting agreements with the affected municipalities and vendors, and returning to the board with a migration schedule and estimated charges for hosted services.
