Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the City Budget It topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ellsworth manager resists several IT upgrades and new hire request as budget tightens
Summary
At a budget workshop, IT director Jason Ingalls asked the council for audiovisual and technology upgrades and funding for a new IT position (all-in cost $115,005.82); the chair said many requests will be denied this cycle and asked staff to model offsets and fee options.
Jason Ingalls, Ellsworth’s IT director, told the council at a budget workshop that his two-person team is under pressure and had submitted three new requests, including $15,000 to upgrade council-chamber audiovisual equipment and an all‑in cost for a new IT position of $115,005.82.
"We did request 15,000 for that," Ingalls said, describing repeated complaints about audio and video quality and unstable video-conference appliances acquired early in the COVID era. He said the department handles a broad set of responsibilities — from police technology to shared software services — and that a third position would still leave the city below typical municipal IT staffing ratios.
The chair acknowledged the need but framed the requests in the context of a constrained budget year. "This year we're going to say no to a lot of things," the chair said, urging staff to show how each request would affect the overall tax rate and to model fee-based offsets such as a registration fee for short-term rentals to cover new systems.
Councilors pressed alternatives. One member suggested internships or short-term consultants to handle low-ticket help-desk tasks; Ingalls said interns create management and security complications because they would require background checks and may be exposed to law-enforcement data. Ingalls also asked the council to consider consolidating certain software costs into departmental budgets to reveal true costs and encourage efficient choices.
Beyond personnel and AV, Ingalls flagged infrastructure and lifecycle items: a city fiber network ("Kobe"), replacement of end-of-life phone recording at the police department, security camera storage upgrades, and traffic-signal maintenance — the latter driven by unanticipated failures and high equipment and repair costs.
Council members asked staff to show a budget calculator that toggles individual requests on and off to quantify tax-rate impacts and to return with options — including staged purchases, fee offsets and potential TIF (tax increment financing) contributions where eligible — at the next budget workshop. No formal vote was taken.
Looking ahead, the council asked staff to return with precise line-item impacts and any fee or short-term-rental revenue scenarios before finalizing decisions.
