County tech director warns of steep lifecycle and cybersecurity costs for IT systems

Eric Daley, Eaton County’s director of technology services, told the Ways & Means Committee the county faces growing technology liabilities driven by software subscriptions, vendor support models and data retention requirements.

Daley said routine functions are increasingly provided as subscriptions and that securing replacements and warranties is costly. "We're projected over the next 6 years to need, you know, approximately $7,600,000 for maintenance," he said, and later summarized the capital outlook: "That's approximately $12,000,000 over the next 6 years that we're projecting." His presentation called out storage needs for body‑worn camera footage, court records and other large data sets as a major recurring expense.

Daley and commissioners discussed tradeoffs — cloud vs. on‑prem storage, warranty response levels, and whether to preserve spending for fast vendor turnaround — and he warned that staff shortages make contracting expensive. He recommended continuing grant pursuit and negotiating longer vendor contracts to smooth future cash flow and reduce peak years of capital demand.

Staff will provide a further breakdown of recurring subscription costs and a mapping of which subscriptions are per‑seat versus infrastructure so commissioners can evaluate where personnel reductions would meaningfully reduce recurring IT costs.