WS 03-03-2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item #4 -Emergency Operations Center Agreement with the State of Minnesota The City of New Brighton currently has an agreement with the State of Minnesota to serve as the alternate State Emergency Operations Center (EOC). As the alternate site, we are required to have IT staff available 24 hours a day. If the City would decide to contract out with the City of Roseville, it would be very difficult for the City to ensure the State of Minnesota that a dedicated IT staff person would be available around the clock in case of an emergency. On a secondary note, our relationship with the State has resulted in about $150,000 in upgrades/additional equipment to the Public Safety Center (i.e. 400 KW Generator). As part of the agreement, the State of Minnesota is able to use our IT staff to assist with any computer related issues in the back-up EOC. If the City were to contract IT services with the City of Roseville, the State of Minnesota could relocate the back-up EOC to another location. The on-going relationship between the State of Minnesota and the City of New Brighton has been a "win-win" situation in that both parties have been able to share resources and personnel in a collaborative effort. Item #5 -Budgetary Concerns - City staff recently did a comparison of the 2009 IT budget and compared that information to the proposal that was submitted by the City of Roseville. Based upon the City's on-going IT needs, the preliminary budget was put together based upon the notion that we would continue to have one IT staff member working for the City of New Brighton. Based upon these projections, the City of New Brighton would be able to reduce costs in the budgetary areas of personnel, training, Microsoft Office maintenance, and anti virus software. Although, the City would also experience cost increases in the areas of contractual services if the City were to contract with the City of Roseville. The City of New Brighton has a projected IT budget of $345,309 for 2009. The projected budget with a cooperative venture between the City of Roseville and City of New Brighton would result in a projected budget of $357,770 for 2009, which is a $14,470 increase over the City's adopted budget. For your review, I have attached a copy of the spread sheet which is attachment "A". Item #6 -Other Issues - As our technology needs have changed, it has become more important for the City to have IT staff available to assist with trouble shooting end user problems. Our IT staff has extensive knowledge operating our current software systems such as Permit Works, CLASS (Recreation Software), Public Safety records management, and Laserfiche. Having staff available on site allows us to respond quickly to all information technology related problems and minimize the number of times that our system is down. Final Overview - Many of the cities that contract for IT services through the City of Roseville are smaller cities (Arden Hills, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Gem Lake, etc.) that have smaller staffs and provide fewer services to their residents. The Roseville model provides significant savings to smaller cities that do not have the resources needed to maintain a stand alone IT network infrastructure. The City of New Brighton already has the necessary infrastructure in place and has invested a large sum of money into its IT infrastructure over the years. The biggest saving that cities experience by contracting with Roseville is they do not have to purchase their own network server. A secondary savings is through shared personnel and staff. The City of Roseville has already acknowledged to City Manager Lotter and 1 that they would have to hire additional staff