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Bangor leaders seek two IT hires to shore up cybersecurity for airport and city systems
Summary
City staff proposed two new IT positions — a cybersecurity analyst and a cloud-security analyst — to address growing cyber threats, heavy enterprise workloads and compliance demands tied to the airport and other critical infrastructure.
The city proposed two new IT positions on its executive slate — a cybersecurity analyst and a cloud-security analyst — arguing the hires are needed to move the department from reactive troubleshooting to proactive protection.
The request, presented during the budget workshop, noted the IT department currently includes an IT director and five staff who together support roughly 620 user accounts and about 500 devices. "We have 5 staff members that support ... 620 computer users," Jeff Courtney, the IT director, said, adding that staff are stretched across PCs, mobile devices and departmental projects.
Courtney described an aggressive threat environment: "We see almost a 100,000 cyber incidents, you know, attacks on our network a day," he told the council, and said the city has completed a TSA incident response plan, run tabletop exercises and hired third parties for penetration testing. He said the city is working with MMA and Google Mandiant to adapt incident-response guidance for smaller municipalities and expects the results of a June TSA audit to shape next steps.
Council members raised questions about cost allocation and whether the airport or other enterprise funds should cover the new roles. One councilor noted the airport already pays for a dedicated technician, and another urged updating the ICAP administrative-charge formula before absorbing recurring staffing costs: the current fee formula has not been revised recently, they said.
Officials also debated whether to combine the two roles into a single hire temporarily. Courtney and multiple councilors cautioned that combining cybersecurity and cloud security into one position risks overloading a single staffer and leaving other systems unattended. "I would be in favor of two positions separately," one councilor said, citing the pace of change in cloud and cybersecurity.
The administration framed the hires as an investment in compliance and continuity: beyond routine device support, IT must address federal and aviation directives that require staff time and expertise. No final funding decision was recorded during the workshop; councilors asked for additional cost allocations and ICAP clarification ahead of budget adoption.
The council is expected to weigh the request as part of the final budget cycle and to consider updating chargeback formulas so enterprise funds share the cost of new technology positions.
