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IT chief seeks support for multiyear Hurricane Electric agreement for county connectivity
Summary
Howard County’s CIO asked the council to reauthorize a multiyear agreement with Hurricane Electric to continue a 100‑gig connection used for schools, public Wi‑Fi and other government services. He cited prior sole‑source procurement, existing partnered infrastructure and modest projected savings over the contract term.
TJ Mayotte, chief information officer and director of DTCS, asked the council to support Council Bill 57 to reenter a multiyear agreement with Hurricane Electric. Mayotte said Hurricane Electric provides the county’s 100‑gig Internet connection that carries traffic for the school system, public Wi‑Fi sites, and other government operations; the county originally procured the service as a sole source because few providers can meet the needed capacity and to leverage fiber built with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to the Equinix data center.
Mayotte said the multiyear contract would continue existing infrastructure and yield cost savings (testimony cited $92,600 in savings over the contract term). He acknowledged the prior procurement was sole source and said the county had evaluated other providers but that switching would likely require additional infrastructure investment because of the way the county's fiber reaches Equinix. In response to a council question about the contract amount, Mayotte quoted figures in the record (the transcript references '300,090 $396,000 over the course of 3 years'), which he framed as the multiyear expenditure context.
Councilmembers asked no further substantive questions and thanked Mayotte for the briefing. No vote was taken during the hearing.
