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DeKalb County to host its own GIS after cyberattack; council approves new specialist and exempt administrator role
Summary
After a September cyber incident and Auburn's requirement to separate systems by Dec. 31, DeKalb County approved creating a GIS specialist position and adopted an updated GIS enterprise system administrator job description (approved as exempt). Staff told the council the split will require substantial data work and after‑hours maintenance.
DeKalb County Council voted June 10 to create a full‑time GIS specialist and approved an updated GIS enterprise system administrator job description to manage the county’s standalone mapping system after a September cyber incident prompted the city of Auburn to require separation.
Chris, the county's development/GIS lead, told the council that Auburn will stop hosting county parcel data on Dec. 31 and that DeKalb must build and operate an independent enterprise GIS to continue support for property records, Beacon users and municipal partners. "We will have to create a data enterprise system that we will have to manage and make sure stays up and running for everybody that uses Beacon," he said.
To handle that workload, staff proposed two roles: an entry‑level GIS specialist to handle day‑to‑day data updates (transfers, subdivisions and routine edits) and an enterprise system administrator to build, host and maintain the county system (including overnight or weekend updates and emergency restores). The specialist's budgeted salary was described in committee material at roughly $51,000–$52,000; staff asked the council to appropriate partial year funds to recruit and hire in late summer if approved.
The council approved creation of the GIS specialist position by motion and later approved the updated enterprise administrator job description, voting to classify the administrator as exempt so the administrator can perform after‑hours systems work without overtime tracking. County staff and the human resources/whs memo noted the exemption was "borderline" under FLSA tests and flagged potential liability if the classification is challenged.
Why it matters: the GIS split responds to a cybersecurity incident and aims to keep parcel and mapping services available to residents and municipal partners while giving the county direct control of its spatial data.
Quote: "We will have to create a data enterprise system that we will have to manage and make sure stays up and running for everybody that uses Beacon," Chris said.
Next steps: staff will return with appropriation requests to fund the specialist for the remainder of 2026 and begin recruitment; the enterprise administrator will transition to the updated duties as the county completes separation work.
