IT director outlines citywide fiber, camera and cybersecurity work and requests staffing reclassification

Kirk Montgomery, the city's IT director, briefed councilors on technology upgrades and staffing needs, saying fiber has been activated at city locations and centralized systems have been implemented to unify cameras, access control and records.

"Fiber connectivity is available at all citywide locations," Montgomery said, adding that the city is migrating a Citrix share file to SharePoint to reduce license costs and moving toward an enterprise camera system to store and search footage centrally.

Montgomery described steps to increase resilience: redundant access‑control replicas at city hall and the police station, plans for redundant cellular SIMs for in‑vehicle devices and work on SCADA upgrades at public‑works pumping stations. He also described a cybersecurity grant that would offset equipment purchases and allow some purchased items to be reimbursed.

On staffing, Montgomery proposed reclassifying a current IT specialist to a network services manager (naming the incumbent, Chad Cross, as the likely person) and noted a future request for an additional in‑house IT specialist to reduce reliance on high‑cost contractor hours. He told council that consolidating and vetting software across departments will remain a priority as the city grows.

Councilors asked about Wi‑Fi availability at parks and whether free Wi‑Fi would be advertised; Montgomery said Wi‑Fi hardware has been installed in parks and will be transitioned to the new fiber network.

No formal action was taken; the staffing and capital proposals will be considered during upcoming budget deliberations.