12/13/2004 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• AGENDA ITEM 1D STAFF ORIGINATOR Al Rolek MEETING DATE December 13, 2004 TOPIC Consider Resolution 04 -195 Approving Joint Powers Agreement — Information Technology Partnership with the City of Roseville. VOTE REQUIRED BACKGROUND Simple Majority The Information Technology (IT) functions of the city to this point have been managed by city staff that have some expertise in this area. The daily demands upon these individuals for services in the IT area have grown substantially over the last few years. While staff has done an excellent job keeping our systems up to date and operating on a daily basis, it has become increasingly difficult for them to maintain network administration at an adequate level. Changes in technology, system updates and greater demand for upper -level network administration have exceeded their ability to keep pace with the time and training necessary to maintain our systems and still keep up with their regular duties. We have encountered problems with e -mail (especially interoffice between the police and other departments), web site administration and other Internet issues. In addition, keeping up on virus protection in an ever -more volatile environment and performing regular and critical network updates has increasingly time consuming. Staff has explored several alternatives for IT solutions. Hiring a dedicated in -house IT professional for the city at this point is impractical in terms of cost and workload. A shared position between Lino Lakes and neighboring cities does not seem to be a possibility at this time. The City of Roseville has a well - developed IT department and works with several other cities in the area through joint powers agreements to serve as their IT specialists. In interviews with representatives from the joint powers communities, staff has been impressed with the level of expertise and service that these cities have received from Roseville. Staff has met with representatives from Roseville to discuss our specific needs and their ability to manage our upper -level network administration needs as well as solve the problems mentioned above. At this time, staff feels that an arrangement with Roseville will fill our IT administration needs, and a joint powers agreement (JPA) has been drafted that we feel will benefit all applicable departments. Under the JPA all IT staff will be employed by and be the responsibility of the City of Roseville. Roseville with maintain the exchange server for the city, manage network communications infrastructure, ongoing network maintenance, security and upgrades, provide desktop technical support, host the city's website, provide internet access, and provide support for hardware and software purchases. There will still be some day -to -day support provided in -house by Lino Lakes staff. The $20,000 annual fee for Roseville's services under the JPA is a great savings over hiring an on -staff IT professional, and provides the city with greater resources than could be provided in- house. There will also be a necessary investment in hardware (switches, routers, etc.) of approximately $15,000 to effect this solution. As you may recall, staff did identify this need during our 2005 budget discussions and included adequate resources in the budget to fund this solution.