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MHIS presents modest 1% FY27 increase, highlights cybersecurity, Buckley High upgrades and free public Wi‑Fi grant
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Summary
MetroHartford Innovation Services (MHIS) told the council its FY27 budget request is $6,013,394 (a 1% increase) and emphasized investments in cybersecurity, data‑center modernization, school and city network upgrades and a state‑funded public Wi‑Fi expansion into Upper Albany and Clay Arsenal.
MetroHartford Innovation Services (MHIS) presented its FY27 recommended budget on April 22, proposing $6,013,394 compared with a $5,956,521 adopted budget for FY26 — a difference of $56,873 (about 1%). Chief Innovation Officer Charice Snipes said the increase largely covers vendor maintenance and licensing costs while enabling continued modernization of critical systems and cybersecurity protections.
MHIS framed its work as the technology backbone for both Hartford City operations and Hartford Public Schools. "Our mission is to provide reliable IT services," Snipes said, adding that modernization of legacy systems, proactive cybersecurity and improved data governance are the department's top priorities. She reported MHIS currently has 41 positions, with 20 city staff and 21 assigned to Hartford Public Schools, and that HR is actively recruiting to fill vacancies.
The presentation highlighted recent projects aimed at service reliability and transparency: a new internal intranet for employees; a Bloomberg youth employment website; Kronos cloud integration for the police department; a Munis mobile asset module; public permitting dashboards; migration of GIS services to an ESRI platform to lower vendor costs; and an online permitting and licensing portal. Brett Floden, the application data manager, noted new public dashboards that surface permit status for planning, DPW and the building department.
Network manager Jeruel Figueroa described major infrastructure work at Buckley High School — including more than 200 cameras, roughly 250 wireless access points and more than 100 network switches — plus wireless upgrades across city sites and retirement of legacy phone endpoints for Hartford Public Schools. Figueroa also said MHIS secured a state grant to expand free public Wi‑Fi into Upper Albany and Clay Arsenal; he described the award as state‑reimbursed so the cost would not be borne by the city.
Snipes emphasized cybersecurity metrics and operational support: in the past 90 days the email security system automatically processed 10,490 emails, identified 109,430 spam or phishing messages and achieved an average 73% automatic remediation rate; since July 1, 2025 the help desk opened 13,711 tickets and closed 13,147. She said MHIS has upgraded the data center, implemented enterprise backup and recovery, and improved resilience for emergency operations.
During council questions, members asked for line‑item detail and public dashboards for complaint and rental‑housing tracking. Snipes agreed to provide the requested budget breakdowns and said the department can build public dashboards for complaint tracking; she also said fiber deployment across the city is ongoing and dependent on grant funding. On AI, Snipes said MHIS is working on security guardrails and supporting departments interested in pilot deployments.
Council President TJ Clark thanked the team for the presentation; the committee recessed to allow Hartford Public Schools to set up for the next presentation.
The MHIS budget briefing left the council with technical detail to review and a promise of additional documentation, including the department’s line‑item breakdown.
