Lorain committee hears department overviews on cybersecurity, roads, utilities and staffing

Lorain City department heads gave councilors an informational briefing on operations, priorities and near-term plans at the Police, Fire and Legislative Committee meeting on Feb. 21.

IT Director Comer told councilors the department supports citywide systems for public safety, payroll, permits and phones and has prioritized cybersecurity. "It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when," Comer said, describing multilayered defenses, phishing simulations and an incident-response plan the department will present to council soon. He said the city is pursuing CJIS compliance with an outside vendor.

Human Resources Director Lori Kukoski said the city has about 559 full-time and 72 part-time employees and described the onboarding, preemployment screening and annual open-enrollment processes the department manages. Kukoski told councilors the city has secured roughly $2,300,000 a year in additional rebates from recent insurance arrangements and agreed to provide documentation of the savings.

City Engineer Dale Anderson described the annual roadway program, reporting the city delivers about $2 million in road improvements each year with nearly half funded by state grants. Anderson said the city uses a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) to score and prioritize streets (the current city average is roughly 67—68) and that council and public complaints are considered alongside the PCI when setting priorities.

The building, housing and planning director (who identified himself in the meeting as Matt Hughesmer) reviewed five departmental divisions and several housing programs. He highlighted ongoing efforts to secure federal funding, saying the city is pursuing HUD implementation grant opportunities and that Choice Neighborhoods and ARPA funds have been central to recent projects.

Public Property Director Laurie Garcia and Parks Superintendent Mindy Siegel reviewed street, sidewalk and parks work. Garcia said the public-works group handles cemetery maintenance, traffic signals, potholes, snow removal and an in-house paving program; she estimated this year's in-house paving package at just under $300,000 for the listed streets. Siegel said Lorain manages 56 parks over about 800 acres and noted that Oakwood Pool reopened in 2024.

Carmen Rosano, reading a memo for absent Utilities Director Joe Carbonara, said the utilities system serves about 26,000 customer accounts across Lorain and neighboring jurisdictions. She provided infrastructure figures: the Black River wastewater plant treats roughly 13,000,000 gallons per day (about 80% of customers), a second plant treats about 3,000,000 gpd, the water plant averages about 8,000,000 gpd, the distribution system includes roughly 320 miles of mains, and sewer collections include about 275 miles of sanitary pipe and 170 miles of storm piping.

The fire chief (the record names Chief Chris Brennan and then a speaker identifying as Chief Chris Evans) described recent levy-funded purchases s new stations and apparatus nd said the levy supports firefighter staffing. He also outlined a smoke-detector program with the Red Cross and plans to expand water-rescue capability with a newly acquired boat.

Police Chief Michael Failing said the department operates traffic, marine-rescue and specialized units (detectives, K-9, dive, SWAT and others), highlighted community events and said staffing stands at 92 with seven trainees; he expects hiring and academy classes to push the force toward a target of about 100'104 officers this year.

Councilors pressed staff for follow-ups: IT will return with a cybersecurity compliance and incident-response plan; engineering agreed to circulate a multi-year roads and sewer project list and the PCI scoring schedule; HR agreed to provide documentation of insurance-rebate savings; and departments were asked to share slide decks and bullet summaries with council. The meeting was informational and concluded with a reminder that managers meet weekly to coordinate cross-department work.

Next steps mentioned on the record included an upcoming fire-levy fundraiser (noted for Feb. 21 in the meeting) and a promise from IT and engineering to return with more-detailed plans and lists for council review.