Commissioners move forward on $120,000 justice‑center network remediation shared with city and sheriff

County IT staff told commissioners that an audit found the justice center's networking closets were disorganized and presented security and fire risks, with mixed wiring and inadequate physical separation among the county, sheriff and city equipment.

"The current state of the facility presents an unacceptable level of risk," IT staff said, showing photos and recommending a complete tear‑down and rebuild of the physical network layers. Staff solicited competitive bids and recommended Z3 Technologies as the contractor to perform remediation and to reorganize the racks into three locked cabinets so each organization controls access to its equipment.

The project cost is $120,000, to be split three ways: $40,000 county, $40,000 sheriff (the sheriff proposed using reserves), and $40,000 city. Commissioners moved and seconded the recommendation and discussed project scope, the billing formula and ongoing governance for shared infrastructure.

What the vote did (and did not): The transcript records a motion and second, and commissioners discussed project governance and risk mitigation; a formal roll‑call tally was not included in the portion of the transcript provided, though staff proceeded with implementation planning in discussion. The project will map and label cables, segregate racks and create formal access and maintenance procedures.

Why it matters: The remediation aims to remove fire hazards, improve cyber‑security posture and make future troubleshooting quicker. Staff also noted potential third‑party breach evidence in earlier incident response work.

Next steps: The IT director will coordinate with the city and sheriff's IT staff and the selected vendor to finalize scope, schedule and written interlocal responsibilities.