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Westminster IT director outlines 2025 priorities: MFA, CrowdStrike, Wi-Fi upgrades and project manager hire
Summary
City information-technology leadership presented the department's 2025 budget and priorities, including hiring a project manager, completing a multifactor authentication rollout, implementing CrowdStrike under a grant, replacing aging storage infrastructure and expanding Wi-Fi across city facilities.
City information-technology leadership summarized the department's 2025 budget and priorities for the Westminster City Council on Feb. 3, emphasizing security, cloud licensing costs and investments to support staff and new city facilities.
Chris Lindsay, assistant city manager, introduced the presentation and an IT director (title confirmed in the record; the director's personal name was not provided in the transcript). The director said IT supports "every single 1,100 plus city employees" and described the department as responsible for software, hardware, help-desk support and technology training across the organization.
Key priorities and budget drivers: IT staff told council the department's overall budget rose about 18% for 2025, mainly because of higher contractual subscription costs (cloud and software licensing). Major items and initiatives presented included:
- Hiring the department's first full-time project manager to coordinate growing technology projects and support planning for multiple new city buildings.
- Completing a multifactor-authentication (MFA) migration and replacing a problematic VPN and firewall platform that slowed the MFA rollout.
- Implementing CrowdStrike endpoint detection and response under a state/federal grant; staff said the 2025 licenses are funded at a high tier and the city has a discounted option if it continues after the grant period.
- Replacing aging storage area network hardware and expanding OneDrive/cloud file usage to reduce on-premises storage needs.
- Upgrading wireless access throughout city facilities to improve coverage and capacity; staff said upgrades already produced sizable speed improvements at Fire Station 1 and the Parks & Rec center.
- Continuing the city website redesign and implementing a new resident-facing 311 platform (City's "click-fix" style system), as well as scoping a possible ERP replacement study for JD Edwards.
Security emphasis and costs: staff said two of the department's largest ongoing expenses are Microsoft 365 licensing (projected near $1.2 million) and Azure cloud consumption (about $140,000). IT reported receiving a stateOIG grant to cover CrowdStrike deployment for 2025 and said ongoing licensing would be at discounted rates thereafter if the city elects to continue.
Operational notes: the department described a newly established walk-up help desk at a parks and rec facility for city employees, an audio-visual master service agreement strategy for meeting rooms and satellite spaces, and internal software engineering staff (six engineers plus a supervisor) that support enterprise applications and public safety systems.
Council questions and follow-up: councilors asked about the project-manager role, long-term licensing inflation, JD Edwards (the city's 23-year-old ERP) and whether IT expects continued budget growth. Staff said licensing inflation is unpredictable but that the department seeks multiyear contracts when possible to secure discounts. On AI tools the director said the city has begun piloting Teams Premium meeting companions and will evaluate additional Copilot-style functionality.
What the city will do next: staff will proceed with planned 2025 projects, continue monitoring costs and return to council with relevant project schedules and funding requests as projects are scoped.
