Woodburn officials approve cloud migration and greenlight utility equipment purchases

Woodburn municipal leaders voted to move the city’s finance and utility software to a cloud-hosted platform and discussed multiple utility purchases and staffing changes during their latest meeting.

Kevin (city staff) presented a Boyce/BSNA cloud migration proposal, saying the package would cost $38,725 and that integration fees were being waived for prompt sign-ups. Kevin said the annual maintenance fee would increase from about $10,000–$11,000 to roughly $16,000 and that the vendor quoted $19,600 for up to 16 days of training, though staff intend to limit training days to reduce that expense. Installation is not expected until summer; a $1,000 deposit would hold the city’s place in the installation queue. The council moved and seconded the proposal and the chair called for “all in favor”; no opposing votes were recorded in the transcript.

At the same meeting, municipal staff reported plans to buy five new handheld radios for emergency services, with unit costs cited as “over $10,000” each. The speaker noted the previously purchased radios are increasingly non-repairable, and the high replacement cost may require spreading purchases over multiple budget years.

Officials also discussed procurement of dial/data loggers to detect distribution leaks. Staff said the devices have already helped locate and repair leaks and that the utility budget covers between 20 and 30 units; line-item totals discussed during the meeting included figures in the mid-hundreds of thousands of dollars for broader related network work.

A staff presentation flagged a significant operational concern: the utility is losing about 32% of treated water in its distribution system, above the state guidance of under 25 percent. Staff said some loss is expected because of older buried infrastructure, but the current rate exceeds the target and motivates continued investment in leak detection and valve work.

On personnel, Kevin reported that deputy clerk Rachel resigned to accept a school position and that the city hired Leah Delinsky as deputy clerk; city hall will operate with limited hours until Leah begins training on Jan. 19. Staff also said Kim Hefner will provide intermittent support during the transition.

The meeting closed after routine minutes and payroll approvals and votes to accept vendor quotes for utility work. Staff said they will continue refining training days and other line items to limit long-term increases in annual maintenance costs.

The board did not record roll-call tallies in the transcript for the motions described; the transcript shows motions were seconded and the chair asked for those in favor, with no recorded objections on the provided audio transcript.