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Council trims TEBS contractual support by $400,000; three TEBS items placed on reconciliation list
Summary
Government Operations placed three TEBS items on the reconciliation list (Community Connect Portal study $375K, cloud backup $144K, ADA compliance software $170K). The Council approved a motion reducing TEBS contractual-support realignment by $400,000 (vote 7-4), with directors warning of possible service impacts.
The County Council amended the Technology and Enterprise Business Services (TEBS) FY27 budget during May 4 deliberations, placing several IT items on the reconciliation list while voting a separate reduction to TEBS contractual spending.
Committee recommendations: Government Operations recommended adding three TEBS items to the reconciliation list for further consideration: a $375,000 go/no-go study for the HHS Community Connect Portal, $144,000 for a cloud-based third backup method to protect county data from cyber incidents, and $170,000 for digital accessibility compliance software to help meet Department of Justice ADA expectations.
Council action: Councilmember Will Jawando moved to reduce $400,000 from the County Executive's proposed TEBS contractual-support realignment (which proposed to realign $1.098 million offset by eliminating long-term vacancies). The motion passed 7 in favor, 4 opposed. TEBS directors cautioned that additional cuts could affect enterprise licensing, subscriptions and other core contractual obligations but acknowledged previously implementing a 5 percent operating reduction.
Why it matters: TEBS provides centralized IT services used by many county departments; the reconciliation items speak to statutory reporting systems and cyber-resiliency needs that staff said are necessary to maintain legal compliance and operational continuity.
Next steps: The reconciliation items will be considered in formal resolution language during the Council's reconciliation process next week. Council staff and TEBS will identify specific service impacts and report back as part of the resolution process.
Quotations from the meeting: "When we submitted our budget, we did the hard work of looking at our current expenditures and we reduced that by 5 percent," the TEBS director said, noting the department had already cut contracted services. "We need to find reductions," a councilmember said, arguing additional savings are required to balance the FY27 budget.
