All right, good morning, everyone.

Today is April 3rd, 2026, and I call the Lake County Technology Committee to order at 8 30 a.m.

In addition to being able to attend in person, remote attendance has been made available to the public via Zoom at the link on the agenda.

This meeting is being recorded through Zoom.

For our county board rules in the open meetings act, attendance via remote means is permitted for qualifying reasons as long as the majority of the committee members are physically present.

We've been notified in advance by member Altenburg that she is requested uh to participate electronically to a I guess any uh an emergency.

Um physical quorum is present, so Mara may be marked as present if she when she gets on um and is eligible to vote on matters before the committee today.

Um can you please join me in the least pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands?

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Yes.

Um member Altenberg here.

Chair Kasman, Vice Chair Kasmin?

Here.

Chair Clark here.

Member Dan Forth.

Member Frank?

Here.

Member Peterson.

And Member Roberts.

All right, great.

We've got a quorum.

All right.

Um, do we have any public comment today?

No public comment.

All right.

I don't have any chairs remarks or unfinished business.

Our new business is the consent agenda, which is item 8.1.

Can I get a motion in a second, please?

Motion by Robert, second by Kasbin.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

All right, on to our regular agenda, which is item 8.2.

Excuse me, which is a joint resolution authorizing a contract with CTI Itasca, Illinois, to upgrade existing audio video video components to enable a more standardized and seamless functionality for all users hosting meetings at the Lake County Division of Transportation Main Conference Room at a cost of 49,419 dollars.

Can I get a motion in a second, please?

Motion by Frank, second by Kasvin.

Uh I think Director Schneider is on Zoom.

Can you hear me?

I hear you, but I don't see you.

But I we hear you.

Okay.

Oh, there you are.

Okay.

Great.

Well, good morning, everybody.

Happy Friday.

Shane Schneider, DOT director.

So the item before you is to upgrade the DOT main conference room A V technology.

Uh, I guess I'll classify the existing system as pre-pandemic and somewhat limited compared to the modern AV functionality.

Um, we have reviewed all the technology with the EIT uh team in uh procurement um regarding the purchases.

One of the big advantages of the upgrade will allow any user of the main conference room to plug in uh with an HDMI cable and have full access to all the AV technology in a room.

So that's in internal Lake County staff from any department and outside vendors that commonly use that room will all have the the advantage of the upgrade.

Um and that will work across platforms, whether you're using Zoom Teams or WebEx.

Umber usual have full access to the conference room.

So um that's it in a nutshell.

Happy to answer any questions.

Yeah.

Um, thank you.

Member Frank.

Thank you, Chair.

Morning, director.

Excited to see the uh line eye pride you're wearing this morning.

Big big weekend.

Of course, that's a very exciting for the basketball team.

Um it's not the only video enabled conference room that the county operates, right?

So my question is do we have the same technology and same equipment in all of our conference rooms?

And would it make sense in the future for us to sort of do this as a single procurement?

So, hey, we're doing video conferencing equipment in six different buildings.

Couldn't we use streamlight that make that all the same?

So good question.

I don't know if I can provide the best answer to that, but I can say that we did consult with uh a contract that was um uh that was bid across various governmental agencies.

We work with our in-house uh procurement team early county procurement team.

Um and they vetted the contract.

We also consulted with EIT and they they confirmed this is standardized equipment.

You know, could we have got better pricing if we did multiple rooms at once?

I I don't know the answer to that.

Um, but we do feel you know, um, it's standard equipment that we are using across the county.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I think it's a good point.

Is um actually who would be in charge of like like what of coordinating did like this to make sure like you know, all our conference rooms upgraded, they can all communicate.

Is there like do we have like an overall plan?

I don't know.

I guess we can find out.

We're kind of finding out.

Um, because that would be, I know CIO Blandy, did you wanna would that be an EIT thing?

This is echoing.

Good morning, Chris Planning CIO.

Um, we the company that they are working with is a company that we do utilize throughout the county.

I believe PBD used it in their conference room upgrade, and I believe they've used it here.

Um, as far as doing all the conference rooms, we I think that makes sense, but we do them kind of as need arises.

So we did do some of them on the sixth floor.

We did them on uh uh to prep for the border review um meetings there.

And so we kind of used a um faster cheaper approach for those as an interim.

We put some TVs and some equipment uh that served their needs.

Um doing a full-blown upgrade of those would be more expensive.

Um but when the needs arise, we would look at that.

So we are using the same vendor and provider for standardization.

Um we kind of take them as they as they come.

So there is like an overall and urging idea to standardize it and to have the upgraded equipment.

Because we all know in today's world, you know, having remote meetings or being able to communicate this way, even between buildings sometimes is really important.

Yeah, as an overall approach, it would be probably an expensive endeavor.

And so you prioritize what you're gonna focus on.

So things like their their conference room is outdated, technology, and they can't do what they need to, so it kind of comes up that we're standardized by going through the same vendor provider to standardize that way, if it makes sense.

Yeah, I think that does make sense.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Because um, yeah, this is important as someone used to be in that room a lot, and uh, we can all see how important it is to have the technology um to make us more efficient and productive.

All right, any other questions?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries.

Item 8.3 is a joint resolution authorizing a contract renewal of Oracle's cloud environmental environment support services with TD Sinex DLT solutions of Herndon, Virginia, in the amount of 247,640 and 88 cents.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Kasbin, second by Roberts.

Good morning.

Hello again.

Um, Chris Blanning, CIO with me.

Mike Buslana, applications manager.

Today, uh this first item is related to keeping our current boss ERP system up and functioning.

Um this piece today is support for the infrastructure.

So that's all the servers, databases, etc.

I'm gonna let Mike talk a little bit about that, give you a better overview.

Thanks, Chris.

What this does is like Chris mentioned, really maintains the infrastructure behind the scenes, the servers, the networks, and the people that work on the patches for security, let's say, or let's say Oracle releases uh a new system update for compliance.

This is what gets those installs applied to Boss to keep it compliant, to keep it safe, to keep it secure.

Additionally, what it does is consistent 24 by seven monitoring.

So if something with BOS is either going wrong or about to go wrong, alarm bells start going off, people start working on it to make sure that it stays up and reliable.

Last time we talked about, I believe it was last committee meeting.

We brought forward a piece to maintaining Boss, which was more on the software side.

This is the infrastructure.

There is another piece as well that is paying for that hosting in their data center.

So this is support of that equipment in the data center.

So infrastructure.

Um I had to talk more about that, but if you want me to.

I appreciate that.

I know we had a long talk about this too, because it seems like we're always voting on another thing for boss, right?

Like it's like, what more is there?

And I think you did a really good job of explaining.

It really helped me too to know that like this isn't this isn't the hosting, this isn't the writing of it or creating of it.

This part is the, I believe that the monitoring and like doing security patching and things.

So it's it's just almost unbelievable how many different parts there are to like one system.

And so, yeah, and I mean, obviously, we need to do this.

And I mean, I think it's obvious because it's about security patching and things like that.

But is eventually um, and if we, you know, I don't know if there's we talked about maybe I don't know, and I don't know how I guess how much longer are we going to be doing this?

Because I it would be nice to see otherwise I'm like, we could have a whole presentation on like the boss system, but hopefully it's going away.

So what do we know how you know this is for a year, I believe?

Yes.

Um, this is and yeah, there are a lot of pieces to BOSS maintaining it.

Um important to note, this is not new.

This is something we've these this is just a renewal of this support.

And yeah, we do have to do it primarily, get the security patches and updates and things like that.

Um, as to how long boss will exist.

Um, it does have to exist for a bit past the go live of the new ERP.

That's still being determined.

We talk about we talked about it a little bit last time, I believe that it it depends on um exactly what needs to be accessed in it in a live exactly how it is today.

We will be obviously converting data into the new system and then converting the historical data into a place that can be accessed.

So the question will come up at a certain point.

Is it required to keep boss as is so they can access it like it is today for audits or et cetera or other reasons?

That'll drive how long we need to keep it up as is.

Now, the good part, Mike has told me is that we can uh turn down some of the pieces potentially um as we go along.

But this renews through May.

We think it's close enough to uh this will be it.

I know will be your question.

Do we will we get this renewal again?

Probably not.

I can't say for sure yet, but that's our target.

And if so, even earlier than that, we could turn some pieces off if like a thousand users don't need access to boss.

We could turn it down to just who who does need access and potentially reduce some cost that way.

But it is our goal, as we always say, is to decom or get rid of the old system as soon as we can.

It's kind of the needs of the business.

Uh we'll drive that, but we're working with them to figure that out as the project goes.

Member Roberts, did you have a question?

I'm assuming it's next year.

I so next year may we'll we may have to renew this again.

Maybe hopefully.

But yes, maybe.

And I think it is kind of amazing.

I mean, moving off the old system.

We talked about there's so much with the data storage, with the you know, functionality when because you can't just turn it off, obviously.

So and I think that the plan on how to like wean ourselves off boss is still in process, correct?

Like it isn't because we do we have to do you have to get through the ERP system implementation first and then, or it's sort of like you're working on it all together.

Yeah, we're working on it, and that decision of how long we'll need it comes up in a bit in the project.

We just haven't determined it yet.

We're focusing on some other foundational things right now, but that will come up in the project.

So we'll know when that date is soon.

And then just because we're with how is this how are we budgeting for all of this when we like is there have we budgeted for this since we didn't maybe necessarily know, you know, the what the costs were going to be going forward if we had done the system implementation?

So is this already like budgeted?

You know, or in and going forward, are we gonna have like a sort of a budget just in case for like when we do for budgeting for looking forward?

Yes, we absolutely budgeted this year for it.

So this is all budgeted costs to keep boss alive, and there's other costs, and we did budget for that.

Um the question will be as we come up to budgeting season exactly to that point.

Um I guess what's the other project is going to be, which will be great.

And then we will say we don't need the budget for this.

And um question of contingency or how we would fund the what ifs would be something we'd work out with on the midfair's office as we move forward.

I hope we budget for it.

I mean, I think looking at the going through this implementation, I feel like contingency is important, right?

I mean, it always is, but there's so many.

This is so complicated.

I think this project, but such a it'll be such a great project when it's done.

All right, any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Joint item 8.4 is a joint committee action approving a contract modification with Tyler Technologies Inc.

of Yarmouth, Maine, for the conversion of Tyler Tyler Energov Crystal Reports documents to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services in an amount not to exceed 85,005 dollars.

Can I get a motion in a second, please?

Motion by Kasvin, second by Frank.

This was uh this item was brought to us uh by planning building development.

Um so we were working with Eric Wagner and Eric Stefan, who is here today.

If there are any operational questions, we're gonna give it a shot and see if we can explain everything thoroughly.

Otherwise, Eric will is glad to come up here.

Mike's gonna give you an overview what this is.

This will be funded through our our tech CIP um contingency funds, I'll say.

And Mike will give you an overview why and what this is.

Thanks.

Um, Energov as our permitting system for the county.

A big function of it is to produce documents in some cases, the permits or the licenses themselves.

And the way that it does that is with this piece of software called Crystal Reports.

Well, Crystal Reports is going out of support in October of 2026.

And the recommended path from Tyler is to move to the new SQL Server reporting services.

So what this professional service does is has Tyler come in, go through the reports that need to be converted from the Crystal Report system that's going out of support into the Microsoft system so that we can continue to produce the licenses, the permits, the invoices that are required for daily operations.

Wow.

Member Frank.

Thank you, Chair.

I really appreciate the way you explained it because I was following.

So that's important.

But uh, I just want to understand what's this gonna what's the change going to look like for the users, both uh in our departments who are you know providing input to the system, but also uh users who are you know applying for permits or need to print a permit that they have been granted, etc.

So from the end user perspective, anyone's applying for a permit, receiving a permit, they'll notice no change.

It'll look how it had before.

It's just changing the software in particular in between that produces the document.

For those that work on reports, you know, say in BBD and Eric may want to speak to this part.

There will be a training curve in creating those reports.

So that part will change, but as far as people that are interacting with it to apply for or receive permits, um, they'll look the same.

Okay, thank you.

And will there um so I it sounds like I mean the other product is going away, so we have to get the new product and it's all within Tyler.

But will there still be access to the old permits?

I mean, if the old system goes away, does that mean that all that that access we won't be able to, or do you will will the new software access them?

So with this, it doesn't actually store the document itself.

The once the document is produced, it's stored elsewhere.

What this does is actually generate it.

So it goes into Energov and says, give me all the information that I need to produce this document, maybe its names, addresses, project types.

It takes that and then generates the document.

Once that happens and it becomes a record, it goes and is stored elsewhere.

Thank you.

That was really good.

I understood all that too.

So thank you.

All right, any other questions?

Yes, vice chair.

This is a high-level question, and just for I don't know, so sort of someone who might be tuning in who doesn't know.

This works with our Tyler system.

Can you remind me of all of the um departments that plug into Tyler and what it's generally used for?

So for Tyler, speaking to to Energov for permitting, um, it is used by planning, um, county board office, health department, DOT, stormwater, public works.

Anyone that you know maybe issuing licenses or permits is doing so out of the energy system.

Okay.

I know it'd be nice someday to get an overview because we always hear about Tyler, and then I think the Tyler it was implemented before even I got on.

And so I feel like some departure is it.

Yeah, you know, it's like does that.

Okay.

Here are other Tyler instances in Lake County, uh, the IAS world, the tax.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know the treasurers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then yeah, the taxes, they always talk about the Tyler Taxi website.

So they are someday deeply integrated into not only Lake County, but many counties and my counterparts and I talk about Tyler all the time.

And you know, yeah, I honestly maybe uh in the future meeting sometime, just having an overview of that, just so we understand whenever because everyone does drop Tyler all the time.

And some and honestly, I don't we never really under I mean we sort of understand, but which system it is and how it works.

That would I think that would be really useful.

I think we're all at about 50% on that understanding.

Yeah, and I yeah, I think it'd be great to do an overview of all of our main software systems and what they're used for and who uses them.

That would be amazing.

So the ones we all talk talk about.

Yes.

Thank you.

That would be super helpful.

Well, thank you.

All right.

Any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 8.5 is a joint resolution authorizing a contract renewal for Cisco Smart Net Services with Logic Callus of Downers Grove, Illinois, and the amount of 423,841 dollars.

Can I get a motion in a second, please?

Motion by Robert, second by Kasvin.

Mike left me.

All right.

I did.

I'm on my own.

Okay.

So this is uh uh support for our infrastructure, which means specifically our network devices.

So that's the backbone of everything throughout the county.

Um, our network comprise of switches, routers, et cetera.

Those are devices that sit in closets or data centers.

Ultimately, your computer, a cable leads to it, or the wireless you connect to leads to these switches, we're just a bunch of ports.

They there are a bunch of them stacked.

They ultimately lead to the data center that leads to this and leads to the internet and our soft our SAS solutions, our cloud-based software, anytime it needs to get out.

So this is the backbone of our network, these devices.

The devices need security patches, they need updates, they need all of that and support.

This is our support contract that provides the security patches for them.

And um the support on them, it also involves hardware support.

So if we have a piece of uh one of these switches fail, we get a replacement switch.

Um think of it kind of like insurance as something we've always been doing, but you do need it.

They require it for certain pieces.

So we've gotten smart over the years and tiered our levels of service so you can get 247 by four hour response.

You can get eight hour response, next day response.

We tier that based on the the need of the switches and what they support.

Let's say one supports just a smaller little thing where three people are, not that that's as not as important as the course which is, but it doesn't make sense to carry the same level of support on that.

Maybe we'll uh have a swap of spare in or something depending on the case.

This also gives us access to advanced tier support.

So we have network engineers who uh support these switches.

Um, but at times there's a higher level issue, they have access to that support, and that's what this gives us as well.

Yeah, take any questions if I didn't explain it well enough.

I thought it was so interesting because this is yet another example of something where it is not the switches, it is not the monitoring of the switches, it's not the like you said the software engineers of the switching.

This is if the switch breaks, I understand like if something happens to the switch, then we've got people to talk to right away and can access to like new parts.

Um, and this and the uh the software patching for the security.

So it's just like another one of these levels for everything.

It's a lot.

There's also been also a piece that does the monitoring of the health of the switches.

And when we do these updates, it's helps us automate that.

So back in the day, they used to have to plug into each switch and update them.

And that's just time consuming.

So this is an automation, you can push it out to all the switches.

I know I'm just wondering at what point will you just go back to paper because it's a lot like cheaper and easier to use them worrying about all these like uh all the security, I mean all the security things and everything.

Contingency.

Yeah, yes, member.

Is this how much is this?

Have you noticed it going up every year in that is a great question.

Yeah, I don't currently have the trend of the cost tracked here.

Well, this is 10% a year.

This one's going up.

That's a lot spin every well, it's a it'll be next.

I wouldn't 10% more.

That's what it says.

I think it says that.

Oh, no, it says our estimated two increase 10%.

So it doesn't say up to, it just says two.

So I'm assuming that that means that this is going to go up by 10%.

Or maybe it's not.

Yeah.

This gets into the whole uh 10% conversation we had last time.

It's um it is or it is not a 10%, it is annual renewals.

We can in renew them up to a 10% increase without coming back here to ask you for that.

If it's 11% increase, we would need to come back.

That doesn't mean it is going to be 10%.

It could be 3%, 4%.

But the trend in the industry is to budget that 10% because currently prices are rising due to chip shortages, et cetera.

Yeah.

Yeah, we did have this exact same conversation, I believe last month.

So when it says two 10%, you it doesn't mean to 10%.

It means it could increase up to 10% without coming back.

And we do have uh procurement here.

If if I misspelt on anything there, please feel free to correct me.

We're we're working with purchasing and procurement to uh on all this the details on the purchasing.

Yeah.

Well, okay.

So it's good to know though.

So if if it if they said, hey, what's gonna be if it is 10% or even if you think it's high, you could go out to bid again, or you could look around.

Because it's because both parties have to agree for the renewal.

Yes.

And just because it says 10% doesn't mean they are like, hey, now we can do it 10%.

Yes, it is not locked in that it is a 10%.

Even though it's written here.

I know we had the same conversation last month.

I remember I'm like deja vuing it, uh, vice chair.

So what are the chip shortages due to?

Oh, you're gonna put me right on the spot.

And I did look it up and read it.

So bear with me if I uh do not get it right.

But there's a certain amount of, I believe, the memory related to it.

And I think that it is due to um it may be tied to AI somehow.

I think it's the AI data centers.

I think some age, I read that I think AI data centers have bought all the chips for the next three years, all the production of chips, and some companies now aren't even making it for consumer things, they're just making them they've switched totally over to AI data center chip making.

So the demand for chips has been sucked up by all the AI data centers.

Yeah.

In addition to like there's some loss, obviously, some logistical issues going on with the war and with with uh and tariffs, yeah.

With yeah, yeah.

So if you're gonna buy a computer, you should have bought it last week.

Yeah, so sorry, we should have had that conversation before again.

We're in the wrong business.

Yeah, but if you are thinking about buying computer, I would buy it like now.

You know, it's funny.

Uh I guess, yeah.

All right.

Any other I could talk about any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries.

Okay.

And then item uh 9.1 is an actually.

Do we want to do your director's report, Chris?

Do you have one before we I do have a brief one and we were gonna do a New York P.

Well, I see.

So it's up to you if you want to go in order.

You can wait, yeah.

I'm sorry, I just saw then you're gonna be back.

Okay.

Item 9.1 um is our broadband update from our wonderful broadband uh digital equity team.

Good morning, everyone.

Happy Friday.

Kay Crandall, digital equity manager.

Good morning, Kim Lunt, digital equity coordinator.

Hey, thank you for being with us this morning.

We just have a brief update on some items here.

We'll be uh reviewing the following strategies and sharing some updates about some recent events.

All right.

So as you know, we've been working on a public Wi-Fi project with the City of Waukegan.

We have um been collaborating with the city of Joaquin and their communications team to help prepare for the launch of the public Wi-Fi network.

And so we are working on the equipment orders, the project implementation timeline, and uh especially with their communications team on the community outreach and engagement.

And we've seen such a great kind of crossover with the digital growth initiative and the rebuild Waukegan initiative.

And it's been a great collaboration with them to align those strategies and projects.

And so we're really excited to be engaging Waukegan businesses to make them aware of this incoming project and infrastructure to create instructional signage uh for community members and visitors to understand how they can log on to the network and also to provide comprehensive maps of where the network can be accessed.

And we have been having some great conversations with the City of Joaquin communications team.

I have come to understand that there's also a uh sidewalk project in development, and this will align great with the launch of the public Wi-Fi network, making the sidewalks more accessible in Waukegan.

Uh, folks will um have all over better accessibility in the downtown area.

So it's very exciting to hear.

And then um, we are also pursuing the implementation of a project with the city of North Chicago.

And so we're working through the process of the IGA with them, and you'll hear more about that in the coming weeks.

Okay, so for strategy four one of the plan, uh it is the device distribution campaign.

And uh we had an amazing uh situation this past week of this past Tuesday, where we were able to give out 41 laptops to uh individuals that went through the North Star, uh, our North Star program.

Uh I'm sorry, our North Star partners that have uh the responsibility of uh putting out learning opportunities as well as proctoring tests that the uh residents do, and then they earn a laptop.

So it was so fun and so exciting to see.

And we had um like a 98% uh rate of of individuals that showed up for the event.

So yeah, yeah, it was it was amazing.

So yeah.

And we will be having another event of this kind, um, a two-day event in June, June 26th and 27th.

We do have a flyer, and Kim will review our toolkit later where that flyer can be found.

But if you're aware of any community organizations or residents who could benefit from this, there's an independent learning component with NorthStar folks are taking independent learning modules and proctored assessments, so they're earning certificates, and then once they complete that process, they can join us for the June event to receive a laptop that they will keep and take home with them.

All right, so uh we're really excited to have the newest member of our team here with us today, and I'll invite Jermaine to just stand briefly.

So Jermaine Hilton is our newest digital navigator.

We're really excited to welcome him to the team.

So if you see him around, um please say hi if you haven't met him yet.

And Jermaine was able to join us for this recent uh digital equity uh coalition meeting.

So thank you, Jermaine, for coming to the first technology committee this morning.

All right, and so getting into some program metrics, this graph is showing um the digital navigator monthly metrics from January 2025 to February 2026.

We are collecting reports for March, so we don't have those numbers for you yet, but these are the numbers that we were seeing in February.

So we were able to serve 343 residents over 324 sessions, and um 95 devices were distributed in the month of February.

And then cumulatively, also from January 2025 to February 2026, uh, these are our overall metrics.

You see this great trend upward.

We keep seeing this wonderful upward trend.

Um we have distributed uh now over 1200 devices in the community, which is excellent.

We continue to serve residents and host one-on-one and group sessions across our community partners.

And the next update, I hope to provide a more detailed breakdown of the uh engagement and instruction.

So instruction provided by our digital navigators in the community and by our community partners and the uh engagement of residents and the time that they're investing and their learning in these programs.

And um, we are also working on survey past participants and their experience in the program and what they're doing now with their computers and their digital skills.

So we're really excited to see the impact.

The, you know, it's it's kind of a short term, but we've been doing the program for a couple of years now.

And so to see what that return in the community is will be really exciting to share out as well.

And here we have our current digital navigators doing their learn to earn programs in the community on the left, and just in March at the Waquegan Public Library, Wilner with a Spanish speaking cohort there, and on the right at the job center of Lake County, Anna with her group uh and um we're so grateful for the partnership that CLC College of Lake County has with the job center.

We're able to use their classroom spaces for our learn to earn programs.

So it's really excellent.

And I am excited that we'll be working with some new community partners this spring.

So uh in my in May, we are gonna be hosting our first pilot class, learn to earn program at the Fox Lake District Library, and we'll be starting a pilots with a couple of other new community partners.

So we're still expanding into communities where we haven't hosted classes yet and engaging residents in um in high need areas in the community in Lake County.

So it's very exciting.

Okay.

Excuse me.

Okay, so for the coordination of digital literacy programming, as we had just talked about with the um with the distribution that we had on Tuesday, we utilize NorthStar, obviously uh in our learn to earn courses as well as with our partners.

And um, so you can see here, this is uh data about the use of NorthStar in both our learn to earn as well as the uh partners.

You can see the monthly average here.

And so average each month, we're uh North Star is being utilized by 95 unique learners, and they're taking at least two tests each at uh since there is a monthly average of 220 assessments, and then the pass rate is 53%.

And just for context, we in our learn to earn courses, we actually do a pre and a post-test.

So the pre-test is included in that.

So by the time they get through the course, they're they're passing them.

So, and then our average score rate there is 81.1%.

Thank you.

Um, our most recent digital equity coalition meeting was on March 19th, and we had 33 attendees representing 17 organizations, and we had three community members attend.

Um, we had the pleasure of hearing from member Kasbin for our opening and closing comments.

And we are so happy and appreciative of you, member Kasman, for all of your support throughout the project and your attendance at all of our meetings.

Thank you so much.

Um we completed a bing uh uh bingo activity that allowed all in attendance to get up and move around and talk to each other about what they had in common about digital equity or not in common um making those connections.

We featured NORSTAR, and um we heard from four of the North Star participant, I'm sorry, partners and how they're using it.

And we also did an activity on our phones with uh regards to how you could take a test or an assessment on Northstar.

Um, and then we also heard uh had a demo on the new technology resource map on the DGI website.

So thank you again, member Kasbin, and I'm inviting all of you to our next one on May 19th.

So if you need more information, please get in contact with me.

And then here's our outreach.

Uh so JT, our outside uh marketing firm creates this easy-to-use toolkit that allows our partners to copy and paste information about the DGI for newsletters or email content as well as printable flyers and social media.

Um you can see here on the left, there's an example of printable flyers.

And so you can see like the new new June device distribution event that Kay had mentioned earlier.

Uh partners can click on that and then they can share it out to their networks.

And then we have on the right newsletter and email content that can just be easily copy and pasted, and then the um the lower one is an example of some social media.

So if you're interested in looking at the toolkit, take a look here on this QR code.

Okay, and so that concludes our update.

Uh, are there any questions?

We do have one more thing to share, a short form video, but any questions I can take while that's being loaded up.

Yeah, member Roberts.

Yes, it will be added.

Um thank you.

Invice chair.

I just want to thank you all for your inspiring work.

It's hearing from program participants about how their life has changed, uh, their lives have changed and um just how the world has opened up to them, both in opportunities and just in connection, some of them social connection, um, which is critical, especially for our seniors.

Um it really uh it's inspiring.

It just helps me see how much you can change a life um by offering services that are needed in the community.

You guys have been, I mean national leaders, um, and we could not have envisioned how thoroughly you you know, sort of pick this up and run with it, run with it.

So it's a very inspiring, just sort of um nationally acclaimed pro program.

And I I can't can't thank you enough for all of your time and devotion and care for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I know I I you know I always think back when we started this and look at what this has become and just and and to be able to go to these meetings, and I wish all the board members, I wish we could all see because as you said, Vice Chair Cosm, and to see how like we look at over 4,000 people served.

That's like 4,000 people whose lives are changed, and how it changes, enriches their lives and gives them access to everything from they can finally FaceTime their grandchildren to they can you know apply for a job, have the equipment.

It is, and the work you both are doing, and your the whole team is doing is just is what government's about, right?

It's why I'm so proud to be part of Lake County government.

And I'm so proud to see these services we can we can give.

I've um I know I wish there was a yes.

So I know we really appreciate all the work we're doing, and we're look forward to seeing what you do next.

And I know I think there's a video that uh Kim might be.

Hi, my name is Kim Lunt.

I'm the digital equity coordinator with Lake County's digital growth initiative.

We are here for the digital equity coalition meeting.

The digital equity coalition is a group of organizations and residents that get together to work on digital equity issues, primarily focused around digital skills, devices, and broadband.

We're going to be hearing from our North Star digital literacy partners and seeing how they are utilizing that program in their organizations and with their different types of participants.

I hope today that everyone walking out of here has made a connection with somebody that they hadn't met before, and that they'll be able to continue the relationships as they walk out into Lake County and work in their organizations.

Coming together, meshing together in those partnerships, help for the work to get done at all levels of digital equity.

We're so excited for more organizations to join us with the digital equity coalition.

And so all you have to do is go to our homepage and look for digital equity coalition on the side, and you can click a link to sign up to join us.

Excellent.

And that's like the great the outreach, the toolkit is amazing.

And with all the communications, it's so amazing.

I get I see it on LinkedIn, you know, I'm seeing seeing it everywhere.

And to the because you know, making sure we're reaching everybody.

So that is terrific.

So thank you both for everything you're doing.

Yeah.

Just one more quick comment.

I want to remind everybody that um I believe it's over 90% of jobs that are listed nationwide now require some level of digital literacy.

So if you don't have that, you can imagine what kind of barrier that would be in the working world.

So big deal.

Thank you.

And even yesterday when we were speaking, we had Lake County partners here, and we were talking about like workforce participation rate and things like that.

And by giving people digital skills, it can let people enter the workforce, which can really help with our labor gap.

And so this is really important work we're doing to address that labor gap.

Every person that gets the tool tools then can be a part more part of our um the workforce.

So it's all great.

All right, thank you both.

Thank you.

All right.

So item 9.2 is our enterprise resource planning ERP system implementation update.

We always wait with faded breath every month.

CIO blending, what's going on?

I was thinking I should make a video for these updates.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know if I'm that creative.

Um I'm gonna give a brief uh ERP update and um next month, we will begin bringing back Patricia Evans, our internal project manager as the project is getting more in-depth.

She'll focus more on the details.

But I thought I would do this one this month.

Um where we are at um is we had we had talked about use cases, which were meant to align on certain main processes that happen throughout the county and where people and departments did them differently.

Can we try to get alignment in these areas to for efficiency standardization, all those types of things?

So we had 12, 13 of these use cases, which were they don't cover everything, but main processes where we think, yeah, there's a lot of different ways of doing it, and we need to try to get alignment.

Those have been completed.

We we uh had representation throughout the county on those.

Um we did have follow-ups where we weren't in alignment on some of those, and ultimately got to a put in quote alignment, right?

It's it's not a perfect process.

Um, but that was the point of the use cases.

So those were complete.

Then just as those were finishing, we needed to start up the work stream meetings, which are where the how, right?

How are we gonna do this?

There's let's say 30 work streams, you know, just how processes happen and how they can figure it based on what the different processes are.

There's over a hundred people who are involved in those work streams and figuring out how.

As you'll recall, we also put a call out to all departments.

Would you like more subject matter experts on these?

Let us know, uh, and things like that.

Goal, better collaboration on the alignment and how we're gonna make things work.

So we, you know, don't repeat past mistakes, right?

We want to make sure we understand everything.

And when we get to configuring it, it all works for everybody.

So those started up, and those have been going for about two weeks, the work streams.

So like the project is back in full swing.

People are, you know, having these work stream meetings for a week or two now.

The first ones were kind of like reintroducing them to, hey, here's where we left off, where are we going to pick up?

Let's look at what we got out of these use cases and the alignment.

And they're working on that.

So by next month, when I bring Patrice back for her uh update, we'll have much more detail on those work streams in progress and and things like that.

So the project's up and running.

Everybody's back at it.

They're all super busy again with this and balancing their real jobs and this as well.

So that's good news.

Um, we also started some all hands meetings, which were uh took place in the last part of the project, the last phase, the first phase.

And that is where all the leads get together and they report on uh progress.

Um they're kind of taking a different approach instead of just a readout of what's the status work stream by re work stream.

They're talking about um, you know, what priority issues do we need to talk about, what kind of cross-work stream things are might be we be missing.

And they do that primarily through the RAID log, which is identifying in the work streams where they have issues, they'll put a risk that comes into this main log, or they'll say, uh, we need a decision on this.

They'll put it in the the RAID log or an action needs to be taken.

So they'll review those and we'll talk about the risks in each work stream and approach it that way.

Uh, you want to reduce, get the risks out of the way, clear decisions, action.

So that is happening.

And it's a good place for the all work streams to talk about challenges in general and get an update on the project.

So the other piece is we are we are moving towards 12.1 go live date.

It is not quote, been a well, not quote.

It hasn't been officially uh the change order signed with that date in it.

We're working on that, but that's the date we're moving forward.

So 12.1, we would go live.

That goes with the best guidance that doing it on a year is the best plan for your first payroll would happen just after January one.

And that is the best guidance from basically the implementer on when you should do it.

So we are taking that approach as well as it gives us time to reconfigure and build these processes and do all this work in the work streams.

So that is what's happening.

I imagine you have questions.

I'll pause for those.

So it sounds like well, there's many reasons that December 1st would be good, correct?

Because with the ARPA funding and everything, I believe we need to, I mean, do we need to we need to get what to get this done this year?

There's a that is a challenge, yes.

Yes, and it's a very recognized challenge.

So I know everyone is aware of this, this funding deadline.

I feel like we've been talking about this funding deadline since we got the money.

So, yes.

Um, and uh so at what point do we know it's gonna be like at what point in this process?

Well, you know, like this summer, like, okay, it looks like we're gonna be good for December first, because it also makes sense from us from a fiscal year standpoint, right?

It is the beginning of our fiscal year, like it would make sense from budgetary things and everything.

Do you know when we'll like is there a it sounds like things are going fine?

You're working on the you know, the work streams and everything.

Um is it like a there's a date that that's like okay, by this date we're gonna kind of know or yeah, great.

Um let me clarify one thing.

The go live date will be determined within the next couple weeks.

Okay, I don't think that's what you're asking me.

I think you're saying at what point will we know that we're gonna go live actually.

Okay, yes.

Project we'll know that through the project status reports as we go.

How are the work streams?

How are the risks?

How are the challenges?

And that's where Patrice will start reporting more on that.

We'll we'll be giving you a real uh sense of how that is going.

We've just started back up, so they're going, so I can't tell you yet how we're going.

Well, I can.

The the project implementer says we're at a uh we're basically at a green status, yellow technically because we don't have the change order signed with the new date, but we are green so far.

12-1 gives us the most time we can to get things right.

So that's another reason we want to do that.

Yeah.

Um I wanted to address also, you said things are going fine.

That that is a uh subjective term, subject to a person's point of view.

Yeah.

So there are challenges that we have.

And so I don't want to come up here and paint a rosy picture.

I'm super optimistic, but I feel it's fair to not paint an overly rosy picture because then if it doesn't go rosy, you're gonna say, why'd you paint a rosy picture?

So the reality is there are there is challenges with alignment, you know, and that's a reality.

We did the use cases and we got as much alignment as we can.

But you know, we are we're in a complicated environment here, right?

There is decentralized processes and offices.

And when you try to bring together and say this is for the greater good, we want to do it this way because standardization or doing it the same way or having the same approval uh flow, um, the same chart of accounts, like when you're decentralized, it comes down to kind of a different point of view.

It can be very efficient when you're in the centralized area, right?

Because that's how you do it today.

But for the person who isn't centralized, it's disruptive to them because you're changing their entire process that they have.

So we try to work through that.

Um, and we are working through it through the use cases, but there is that reluctance at point, and I'll be reporting on that.

Um we are spinning some cycles talking through those alignment challenges and not just building the how.

So that's the straight scoop at this point.

Chair Hart.

Thank you so much for talking about the alignment and with any kind of well, I'll I'll say two things.

Um, you know, the go live date, having to get pushback, uh, that doesn't really bother me because you want to make sure that the software is right before we say, okay, we're doing this.

There are many instances, including here in the state of Illinois, where they thought a software was ready and it was not.

So I really appreciate that attention to detail that you all are showing to make sure that this is right.

Uh, regarding the alignment, uh, you know, we've heard it a hundred times, change is really hard.

And I think the way you phrased it is uh is really correct.

We are more um in some cases decentralized.

Um, but I will maintain, and I think that this board has spoken uh a majority of our board members, if not all, have spoken about um the need for everybody to get on board with ERP.

Um we talk a lot about property taxes and our concern about um our costs to our residents.

And when we centralize, I mean, I'm not gonna say 100% of the time, but I'm gonna say the vast majority of the time, uh, it saves money and it enables us to uh allow people across a large organization to learn how to do things sort of in one way.

And um I I really appreciate the work that you guys have done to bring people along.

Um, you're not forcing it really.

Um you want to understand what the concerns are.

Um, and I I guess I would just reiterate to to you and other staff, including other departments, um, how much this board is all in on ERP implementation across our entire organization.

It makes no sense for us to do things in different ways, right?

When when that is possible to do it and and remain doing it in a quote-unquote old way, um, just because that's how we've always done it, I think flies in the face of um really the values of our board.

And I would say our staff too.

So thank you so much for your work on this.

Yeah, I mean, I think about when when one of all the conversations we've had about the hundreds of different software programs we've had have at Lake County and all the different support for all of them and really how inefficient that is.

And that was one of, I think one of our reasons to decide to do this ERP system is that that way it's efficient.

It, you know, we can we can stop supporting, and we've all we've learned in here how it's not just supporting one thing.

You have to support then the you know, all the different maintenance packages.

It's so much money for all these different softwares.

And so this will allow us to like consolidate all that, and also it provides so much efficiencies and communication.

And I can't imagine if a somebody came to us and said, Well, I just want you to still, I think we should still pay for this whole other software and everything, because I just don't want to be part of software that is being implemented for the whole county.

And I I can say I would not be looking at that very favorably, because we need to mean this is this is an investment in efficiency and also even like cybersecurity-wise.

And so for all reasons, but that is why we've we are spending this money because it is such an important project for all of Lake County government.

And so for the change management of it, I know you're working hard on the change management part and change is really hard.

I know I've been through a work day implementation of my other job, and it was difficult.

And now we all, you know, we get it.

Like we all learned how to use it, it's all fine.

But it was really difficult, especially to get college professors.

We're very some people don't even use technology in the classroom still.

I do.

But we did finally get on board.

So whatever, if there's any way we, you know, we could help with um, you know, if if people just want to hear more about why we think the ERP system is so important, why it's very much supported by the board.

Um, if you know, if we can be helpful at all in these kind of conversations, um, please let us know.

Any other I agree that uh I mean I said it in the beginning.

The it's not a technical challenge doing uh this.

That's not the real hard part.

We can do that.

It's the change management.

Um I don't think anybody disagrees that going to this new ERP is a bad idea.

They're all on board with that.

It's a modern system, it's awesome.

Everybody's excited about that.

It's the change part that we're dealing with.

And so I appreciate the the comments and the support and to come back.

And this is me saying that we are uh working collaboratively with the the county departments and offices, and they are working collaboratively with us.

Use cases.

Yes, we're aligned.

We may not like it, we may not agree with it, but we are aligned.

We get into the work streams and we start building it based on that alignment.

We are starting to see some.

Well, we're not why are we still talking about how we're gonna, you know, why we're gonna do it this way instead of just how.

And I'm saying that we are starting to spin some cycles as these work streams go up, focusing on that, still on the alignment in the work streams where the intention was to just build it.

We've already aligned, let's build it.

So I will be reporting on that as we go to give you a better idea of how that goes and the risk to the project timeline, because when folks are in those work streams figuring out how to do things, it is great to watch.

Like they're just they're just collaborating on it.

It's when we get into the alignment, which we're already supposed to be aligned.

So I'm just bringing you the transparent facts here, in my opinion, that we are spinning some cycles.

I'm not raising a super big red flag yet, but I will keep talking about that.

So I just wanted to give you an update.

Please do, yes, Jared.

May I just ask just a clarifying question.

So I think what I'm hearing you say, I'm apologize for being dense.

So everybody's like, wow, this is really great.

When it gets into sort of, hey, this is how we're gonna implement uh, there's gonna be this one team that does this.

Sounds like you might have some other areas, a department say, who are like, oh no, we've actually always done that on our own.

We don't want just one team to do this.

We want to keep our people over here doing this.

Is that sort of what I'm hearing?

That's a fair example.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so if it's helpful at all, um that's really what I was speaking to, so to be really clear.

Um different softwares, as Chair Clark was saying, makes no sense.

And I would say having duplicative efforts, right?

We've got a whole team over here who does 80% or even 50%, and another team over here who does 30, and then another team over here, right?

It makes no sense to me.

Just have the one team, and that's that's it, right?

So that's what I think I heard.

That's where I think some of those, the streamlining can occur.

And I think that's the direction that we should be going in, having maybe X number of staff over here doing this because maybe right now they they're not comfortable, you know, being part of this, but can't really pinpoint what the concerns are that you guys haven't been able to work through.

Like, you know, that doesn't make sense to me.

So anyway, thank you.

And it, yeah, and it doesn't make sense even from a I always worry about the sky cybersecurity point too.

I mean, like it doesn't make sense to have all the different people doing different things when we have this wonderful software we could do it all together.

And also from an employee standpoint, from staff, this is gives much better like for training and for like moving ahead in careers when everyone's on the same page, versus like siloed.

Oh, we do this, we use this.

And so, you know, it just looks like we could talk about government consolidation.

We can talk about here about the just the efficiencies and um just you know, it'd be better service for everyone.

And so I'm hoping you do keep us posted because um, I mean, I would hope that I mean, I I'm assuming I will say this is not going to get derailed, like we can't not have work day happen because of this.

I mean, we have I mean, this is too important to so we want to make sure we're moving forward collaboratively the best way, but do keep us posted because I you know, we tried to do this once before, you know, and it didn't, you know, it had to stop.

And also knowing that part of it is we are spending a fortune on boss and all these backup systems that we just voted on again today because of these delays.

So this is costing real taxpayer money and money that we could use for other services.

There's a lot of opportunity cost here.

So please do let us know um if there's any way we can be help with this change management.

I appreciate that.

And in fairness to the partner, I'm uh I'm the collaborator bringing folks together.

There are it is collaboration takes time and and it is difficult, right?

And there's more to it at points.

There's there's different l there's authority level.

We want to do it this way.

Well, here's the authority, and we have to abide by that.

Great.

We need to hear that and understand that, because of course you have to, if there's a uh regulation or something that requires that, of course, we have to work with it.

And so that's why we're bringing people in and saying, let's make sure we get this right.

Sometimes we're sticking back at the whoa.

In general, we it it just gets back to the why are we doing it?

So I'm bringing it up here to start this conversation.

Yeah.

Um, to say that it won't derail it.

That's the if we don't resolve it at a certain point.

I'm not raising that flag yet, but it will become a challenge because we're not we only have so much time to configure the how we're gonna do it before we get to end-to-end testing phase where you've set it, test, and everything goes from there.

So right now is uh a time.

So I'm starting the conversation by just not painting a rosy picture and then next month I start talking about it.

Yeah.

I do have some concerns that we are spinning cycles.

So appreciate the conversation.

All right.

Well, let us know if the thing we can do.

I think we've been pretty clear.

Thank you.

All right.

And then do you have a director's report?

I do.

First of all, uh, I wanted to tell you some next month, we're gonna bring forward, we've been bringing policies forward.

So it's our intention to bring two more security policies.

These are the really exciting technical security policies, but they're important to have.

So again, the highlight there is that we're working collaboratively with, we have an uh a policy advisory team that we are working with representatives across the county, and it's working great.

You know, our last two policies got approved.

They they built those policies together.

We get all of their input, so it's working.

So by the time it gets into the county's policy approval process, we can feel comfortable that all the tech, uh, everybody is good with it.

And so I again, thanks to all the partners we're working with on that.

Um, it we couldn't bring the policies forward for approval if we didn't have that collaboration.

So I I'm appreciative to them for spending their time working on it.

So we'll be bringing two more next uh committee meeting uh towards security policies.

So I just wanted to give you a heads up on that.

We'll also be bringing another cool security tool that I will just it's uh gonna help proactively identify uh vulnerabilities.

So we'll describe that in more technical detail next time, hopefully at a story level that makes sense because it is a complicated one, but it helps us proactively uh a further line of defense to identify where vulnerabilities are so we can close them up quicker, which is the key to security.

So I'll be talking about that.

Um the AI governance advisory team is it meets regularly.

Um we have now been meeting and approving some some softwares that are pretty commonplace and things like that.

Um we're going to now take a look and as AI has been going and evolved so fast.

Are do we need we're gonna utilize that team and their great input again, representatives around the county to look at should we be tweaking our evaluating process?

Should we be uh adding to it, revising it as agents now or coming into play and things like that?

So you can't just set this uh policy and forget it.

That team's gonna help review it and how can we improve it moving forward?

Um, as well as look at road mapping.

So working with that group, where are we going with AI?

Are we gonna invest in some things?

Are we going to test some things working as a group on that?

So collaboratively.

So just giving you a heads up that that is working great.

I feel that everybody on that is glad to be part of it.

And um just a heads up that we're making progress, not just approving things, but looking at what's the next step and continuing evolving as this thing keeps going.

Uh lastly, I wanted to talk about the I'm gonna, I'm gonna actually bring Eric Fredericson up here.

He's probably never gonna come to a committee meeting again now to mention.

Um but I appreciate it.

Uh Eric Frederickson is our help desk manager.

So all the great accolades that we give for help desk is first of all due to all the help desk folks personnel, and and then I'll throw it on Eric for his management of that team.

So Eric's been with us for quite a while, uh several years, seven years, Eric.

Seven years is later this week.

Yep.

Um I wanted Eric to talk about we we touched on the chip shortage and Eric's his team's big responsibility is a PC refresh every year.

And so to get ahead of that, Eric's done some great work with this team on purchasing ahead of it.

And I'll just kind of uh let Eric talk to that ad hoc.

Most of you probably familiar with my team, the the Enterprise IT help desk when you put in a ticket or have a computer problem, a device problem.

They're the ones responding to help.

Um when we are not keeping everyone's devices working, solving their their personal issues with their with their work.

We our our main focus is the computer replacement program.

We purchase and replace roughly 400 to 450 computers a year on a four-year cycle to keep everyone with modern hardware, secure hardware, you know, up-to-date stuff.

Um your comment earlier about if you wanted a computer, you should have bought it last week.

Definitely hit me pretty hard.

I would go so far as to say you should have bought it last year at this point.

Um, it is the AI data centers driving that the uh storage and memory chip shortages that have raised prices year over year right now.

The computers we purchase are around 50% more than they were last fiscal year.

Just uh our typical workhorse laptop that we buy was maybe $1,250 in the last fiscal year, and they're a little over 1,700 right now.

So having seen this building over the winter, we have normally with that many computers and you know, a limited staff.

I I tend to spread my purchasing out throughout the year so that I'm not sitting on hundreds of computers that have a warranty ticking away while my staff works through them.

And this year we had to pivot and simply accelerate all of our buying.

Um probably normally I would say I buy computers through the summer so that we wrap up by the end of the fiscal year in the fall, deploying them.

And probably by the end of next week, we will have purchased every computer we need this year.

I don't like having them sitting around not being used yet, but you know, we're deploying them as fast as we can, and we're trying to limit the effect this has on our budget.

So any questions regarding that.

I I was just thinking about this the other day because I was wondering if so one is I'm glad you bought all the computers.

They sit around.

That was really smart because who knows what's gonna happen the second half of the year.

But also, are we ever would it ever make sense to like extend the you know how long people have computers?

I mean, especially as we're going into an environment that might even get harder and more expensive to get computers, you know, maybe making sure that computers have the right updates or you know, something like that, so that they could be used.

So they they're on a four-year cycle now.

Is it we we are on a four-year cycle?

Um, I did see an article earlier this week from Gartner, one of the industry leaders for you know, IT advice and stuff.

And they were already anticipating that consumers probably gonna be keeping computers 25, 30% longer than they would in the past, and businesses again, probably 15 to 20 percent.

Um, they've shown the concern with that going forward is you know, as devices age, there's less updates for them.

You know, you can update, you can security patch a computer, you can't replace the chips on the motherboard, for instance.

So you you run into limitations there.

One we ran into last year countywide was Windows 10 going end of life and everyone having to move to Windows 11 in the world.

And me, along with a lot of the other departments did encounter computers that were hardware old enough that their chips were not compatible with running Windows 11.

So that's always a consideration as well.

Um, we buy on a four-year refresh cycle because from Dell, we get a four-year warranty.

And that's something we moved to around three or four years ago when we switched to buying Dell computers.

And that was to avoid the when we were purchasing Lenovo computers before that, we were on a five-year refresh cycle and had three-year warranties from Lenovo.

So those last two years, we did budget a contingent amount of money to repair computers when they did break during that.

But in a modern laptop, everything built together in your motherboard, a single, you know, what could have been a 20 piece five years ago breaks nowadays.

It's a thousand dollar repair to put a whole new motherboard in the laptop.

So when the laptop itself is twelve hundred dollars, I'm not gonna pay to repair something for a thousand.

It's already out of warranty.

We'll simply buy a new one.

So yeah, that is I I am not looking forward to budgeting this year for what might be prices next year.

The the increases are not due to or not in forecast to slow down this year.

But yeah, potentially having to move back to five years working with you know, Dell or another supplier to see what we can do warranty-wise for longer is a consideration.

Or even, I mean, I know you'd run the numbers, but even like if we didn't have the warranty the last year, but then stockpiling some extra laptops in case there has to be just realizing that we can't necessarily be, you know, replacing them for sure before like the warranty's off or whatever, because they do seem to, I know, I don't know if it's planned in computers, but I feel like after a couple of years, they do seem to kind of give up a bit.

It's unlike you know, plans obsolescence a little bit.

But yeah, I do hope you keep an eye on that because I know from a budgetary standpoint, this could be a huge increase.

And um, I mean, I guess I mean, how many laptops do we have in countywide?

Um my team manages around 1,500.

Um, that doesn't account for some of the other departments that have their own IT shops, courts, health, sheriff.

Yeah, I wonder what their schedules are.

There's combined, they're probably close to the same amount I am.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And if they replace them.

Well, I just think I know I well, you've got these wonderful policy advising committees.

And so maybe when people are talking, and I really want to just shout out, I'm so glad that that's working.

Maybe that's something to talk about, even though it's not a AI policy or a another policy policy, but actually, I guess maybe it is a policy because it's the policy of when how often we replace the computers, but just something to think about.

I mean, even a six-month delay over our whole operations could be a significant it sounds like a significant amount of money.

And just use of resources.

Yeah, Chair.

Thank you.

I I just think it's interesting, given our previous conversation about ERP, that you said, hey, this is how many computers we manage.

That doesn't go for the ones that are managed by the IT department in the courts, the IT department at the health department, the IT department and the sheriff's office.

So all of these computers need to be purchased.

Uh I assume we don't know what their replacement schedule is.

It's there to believe they all operate on a four or five year schedule.

Um DOT I know does operate on the same schedule we do.

We purchase along the same contract.

Um the others have their own Dell accounts as well.

Courts has historically always bought Dell computers, at least during my time here.

We used to be Lenovo, and I think Health might have been buying HP.

Years ago, Health showed an interest in moving to Dell.

I was friendly with my counterpart over there, and I instantly jumped on that as well.

Chris backed us for that in that if all of us started buying Dell, Dell was able to extend a greater aggregate pricing to all of us.

So that's how we got to a four-year refresh with a better warranty, more powerful hardware while keeping cost neutral, because the discount for everybody went up.

Right.

And I think you jumped on that, had this conversation with your colleague in order to get there.

Um I just think this is another example of where it might make where it would just gonna go out on a limb and say it would make sense to have one IT department, right?

You you're saying, yeah, and I think I heard you say about DOT, right?

Having maybe a purchasing schedule, but why wouldn't we have one IT department?

And then you could have staff who are responsible for serving that department.

There is an enormous benefit in terms of the knowledge sharing, and as you said, maybe discounts on buying computers that you know, we can cross our fingers and hopefully we can say, Hey, will you work with us department that is already part of the county?

Or we just say, hey, this is this is the way we do it.

And I would argue that while those departments have their own authorities, and that is really important.

There are many of them are countywide elected, others um or either countywide electeds or uh judges who might be elected in their own areas, or we have the health department, they have their own responsibilities, but for us to have duplicate back office teams, uh again, I I cannot understand the rationale for that.

And I think it's uh uh a real opportunity for um for saving money and streamlining services.

So thank you.

Especially a laptop, I mean, if everyone's buying laptops, I can only imagine the discount, and they're just laptops.

I mean, so we could all get on the same contract.

That would save it seems like that's the same.

So um just to not ruin all my relationship with our partner.

Um we it gets back to some of the challenges between well, what are we trying to fix?

That doesn't fix it for us.

I get the point, and I'm not choosing a side, but for the partner, what we do today is work collaboratively, and so Eric does work with all those departments.

Um the Dell consolidation and price aggregate is a great example.

So what are we are doing is strengthening those relationships, putting these groups together, setting standards, things like that.

So we are doing what we can, which makes sense to do things in that direction to be as standardized as possible.

Again, not picking it aside on that argument at all, but there are two sides to it.

It's a classic debate centralized, decentralized.

But what we are doing is working collaboratively.

So that's working well.

And it's it's really been working well as noted by the policies and uh the AI.

So sorry.

Thanks, Chair.

Yeah, I think it all begins with the conversations and um building um an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust.

And I think then people are more willing to say, well, we have a highly specialized thing here.

And if this goes wrong, and they can share that fear with you, so then you can say, oh, let's talk about that and talk about the ways we could mitigate your concerns so that we can all eventually build to that place.

So I love that the conversations are happening because I think people, you know, um tend to push back out of fear and and worry.

And if those fears and worries can be allayed through building trust, which it sounds like you're doing, um, you know, you can eventually find your way to a more streamlined streamlined system.

So I appreciate that effort and um the the respect that you're cultivating.

Um I think it will continue to um yield benefits to everybody.

Appreciate it.

Well said, everything starts with trust, and that's what we are building.

We also have a monthly technology round table with the folks, and we're talking about now how do we strategize moving forward instead of us doing it, you doing it.

Not we're taking your strategy, but let can we align in certain things?

So we're doing that, building trust, listening, incorporating things.

So well said.

Um, I'll leave it on the high note.

I appreciate Eric and his thinking, getting ahead of this chip thing.

It it will it has resulted in cost savings for the county because of that, and I'm glad that I have the smarts to uh support him when he brings stuff like this forward.

Um so thanks, Eric.

I can that's hand up.

Um, but yeah, I appreciate it.

And I really I can't see enough about about the these advisory committees, the AI committees, and all your work making sure you know, making this collaborative.

I've heard such good results, and you can see it's paying off with these conversations with everyone being on the same board and being collaborative.

All right, thank you.

Okay.

Do we have do you have county industry support?

We don't, right?

No kind of no executive surgeon.

Do we have any members remarks?

All right, I declare this meeting adjourned.

Our next meeting is May 1st, 2026.

Have a good rest of your day, everyone.