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AD HOC Technology Minutes 2004 07-29-04 Page 1 of 6 APPROVED 10/18/04 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE AD-HOC TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE MEETING Thursday, July 29, 2004 6:30 P.M. City Conference Room In Attendance: Alderman Munns Alderwoman Ohare Alderman Sticka Guests: Mayor Prochaska(arrived 6:41pm) City Administrator Graff(arrived 7:02pm) Director of Finance-Traci Pleckham Police Department Office Supervisor-Molly Batterson The meeting was brought to order at 6:34pm by Chairman Alderman Mum-is. Minutes for Approval/Correction: May 5,2004: The committee agreed to approve the minutes for May 5, 2004. Update on T-1 Line: Traci Pleckham started the discussion by stating that she and Molly Batterson had a lot of updates to discuss. Molly Batterson handed out a two page list of updates/issues that they had to discuss with the Committee. Traci Pleckham informed the Committee that the T-1 line was installed and working well. They are still working on removing the Library's Firewall to have fewer problems with programs not being able to go thru two firewalls to get to Internet. Molly Batterson went on to explain that the firewall that was purchased with the upgrade at City Hall is going to be big enough to handle both City Hall's and the Library's needs without losing any security. They are working out how to switch over to the one. Alderwoman Ohare added that the one firewall being removed will help with having the VPN connection with Public Works and Riverfront buildings. Traci Pleckham stated that they are meeting with Russ Walter and E2— Scott Eakon on Monday, August 2, 2004 at 1pm to finalize. At that meeting they will confirm with Russ Walter that there is no work to be done on the library's side or need to go to their Committee Meeting before they can go ahead and remove the one firewall. Traci Pleckham moved the meeting on to discussing the list of employees/officials to get e-mail now that the T-1 line is working. They are finishing up the list now. Weblinx will 1 Page 2 of 6 be the host for the e-mail connection. WebLinx is currently updating there server,so they will let Yorkville know when they are ready to go. At that point they will be able to add as many e-mail addresses as Yorkville needs. With the e-mail accounts updated Traci Pleckham is looking into Waubonsee Community College for customized training sessions for the Outlook program that all city employees have access to now, but few have little knowledge about. The program will give the city employees instant e-mail, response back, meeting scheduling and so on. Everyone will receive the training as a general overview of the program. Chairman Alderman Munns questioned when Andy will have the new server running at Weblinx. Molly stated that she has been in constant contact with him and they are working out some bugs. She will be calling him the following Monday to speak with him and hopes he will be ready to just e-mail the new program so she can start to set up the e- mail accounts. At that point everyone will just have to forward their e-mails from AOL and the AOL account can be closed. The only ones not to close out of AOL will be the employees at Public Works and Riverfront. Tracy Pleckham stated that"Laura" is looking into Comcast since the City already has access to one DSL line. She stated that they spoke to an SBC representative and they give it to Municipalities. Alderman Sticka added that the City has given a list to SBC regarding all their buildings that are supposed to have an intemet connection. Tracy will keep in contact with Alderman Sticka regarding how SBC moves along with getting these connections done with. Update on Current Phone System: Traci Pleckham went on to state that she met with a new representative from SBC the day before. This representative deals solely with municipalities and public entities. The representative gave Traci a list of numbers the City has now and approximately 30 lines can be cancelled due to the T-1 line being installed. This will be a tremendous savings for the City. The representative will also be getting back with Traci regarding moving the long distance to SBC, which will be saving anywhere from $200-$300 a month. The rate per minute will go from 12-15 cents per minute down with AT&T now,to 3 cents per minute. The representative will give the City a written quote. The Committee agreed this will be a great savings and hopes it all works out how the representative says. Alderwoman Ohare questioned what the representative will be evaluating about the phone system on the list of Updates/Issues. Traci Pleckham stated this will be an evaluation and expansion of the voicemail system. The voicemail system now only has so many ports which only allow so many people on the system at a time. This is making it hard for people to leave a voicemail or for the employees to check their own messages. Traci Pleckham will be setting up training sessions for employees on the phone system since there are so many new employees since it was first implemented. The training for the employees is part of the last agreement from when the system expanded to the downstairs. The training will be in August. 2 Page 3 of 6 Additional Business: 1: Molly Batterson stated that the Department bought Dictaphone in 1996 when they first started using voicemail and dictation system. Since then the system has never been upgraded. The Department is running off of a 486 PC for Dictaphone, which allows only one Officer at a time dictate and one transcriptionist at a time. The Department is looking to have two transcriptionists working, which the current system does not allow. Ms. Batterson called Dictaphone to get a quote for a new system. The quote was $45,360.00 for a new system. Ms. Batterson has not checked to see if there are any other options. The Department will look into other options as well. This will be worked into their budget for the future. Currently the Department is transcribing approximately 6-8 hours per day. The Committee suggested looking into see if there was a way to phase the necessities in. Ms. Batterson stated it is all or nothing due to the fact that you need their server, software and etc. Alderwoman Ohare stated with being 8 years since the last purchase, it is legitimate for not being upgradeable with technology changing so rapidly. Molly Batterson stated she will do some more research before Chief Martin needs numbers for the new budget. 2: Ms. Batterson went into discussing how LaserFische has been brought up at this Committee's meetings before. She stated that they were working on getting an actual LaserFische Representative to come out and speak to the Committee in the near future. They will be showing what they do as a company and get a couple of proposals from them. Mayor Prochaska questioned exactly what this company provided for services. Ms. Batterson stated that old documents can be taken and put on Laserfische as well as new. She explained that you can also download electronic documents to put onto Laserfische to save with making hard copies as well. The Laserfische will be very economical with how much paper the City goes thru now. Ms. Batterson explained that they have spoken with other communities regarding using the Laserfische system. The other communities have stated it has worked well for storing all documents on the system instead of having to file away all hard copies. A scanner will be necessary to go along with it to keep the process flowing well. Ms. Batterson stated the City is making approximately 40,000 copies a month. Tracy Pleckham will bring the Committee other Community examples. She also stated that they are looking at getting a 5 year technology plan together with everything changing so rapidly. 3. Tracy Pleckham discussed with the Committee about how they are getting more cash drawers in-line downstairs for the MSI system. This will allow the City to handle building permits downstairs at a faster pace. She went into further explanation stating 3 Page 4 of 6 that the City purchased a building permit tracking module for MSI about a month ago. This allows the City employees to put all the building permit fee sheets on line for each subdivision to remove the old paper format. This allows the employees easy access for tracking fees by registering a new permit request by name and address. The system will track fees and allow the applicant to schedule their inspections right then if requested. The system also is connected to the Cash Drawers which makes it easier for the City to charge the correct amount. The system also tracks land cash, school land cash, and any of the capitol fees that the city is taking in by subdivision, which is great for the budget so they now how much is flowing in the build out stage. Tracy Pleckham also stated that the Police Department will have their own Cash drawer for taking in fees to enter directly into their system. The Rees department can link up with the MSI system. Tracy is going to call and have them do the connection, which will allow them to upload all their programs into the City's system to stop the manual entering of deposits and fees for that department. The Committee agreed this will eliminate any incorrect entering and will save on the employees time spent in entering. Tracy Pleckham stated this should all be completed within the next two months. 4. Tracy Pleckham stated that the Police Department will be moving over to the City's Server so all will be on one by next week. It will be on the Microsoft Server, due to the fact that the Novell Server the Department is currently running on is not going to be supported by the company. This will consolidate the Server and will save the City money by running on one. Molly Batterson stated that the City will have to look at budgeting an upgrade on the Server for the following year. This version upgrade is for security issues and it has not been upgraded for approximately two years. This process is not tremendously expensive and is a constant need with changes in technology. Tracy Pleckham stated it should be around $1,000 to $2,000 at the most. They are holding off for this year in case there is a bigger issue they may need that money for. Alderman Munns questioned if they were going to have the Technology line item in the budget for the next year. Mayor Prochaska stated if the Committee could complete the 5- year plan for what is necessary; it could be put in the budget. This will keep the process moving correctly. The Mayor would like the City to be able to get away from upgrading when it is crucial and have a plan for what should be taken care of when. Molly Batterson agreed that this was necessary and the plan is almost complete, it just needs to be finalized and put in writing. This will include finding out what the Committee member's and staff's goals. The Committee agreed that since this Committee was started a lot of progress has been made for the City as far as organizing the City's Technological needs. 4 Page 5 of 6 5. Molly Batterson stated that the Police Department is still interested in upgrading their software to the New World System. The money is still part of this year's budget,being that it is around$50,000 they are waiting to here back regarding a grant from Kendall County. In the next couple months they should here back about the grant, either way this will be budgeted for next year. The Department has not upgraded for almost 10 years. Alderman Munns suggested that the Department maybe putting together a list of needs and cost. Molly stated right now the Departments only main needs were updating both the computer and dictation systems with an estimate cost at$100,000. Alderwoman Ohare questioned the Committee about past talk of hiring an in-house Tech to handle all the City's Computer needs. Alderman Munns stated when the City starts doing the E-packets and more steady work load that will help. Mayor Prochaska stated that may be a lot sooner than they think with the City's growth. This person will need to have the time and ability to make sure what the City has is still working properly. Alderwoman Ohare questioned Tracy Pleckham and Molly Batterson on what they will be bringing back to the next meeting. Tracy Pleckham stated she would like to focus on the LaserFische idea with what other communities are doing. Mayor Prochaska added that he would like to see a rough sketch of the 5-year Plan to go over with the Committee. The plan will help with preparation for the next year's budget. Alderwoman Ohare asked if the T-1 line is working out as beneficial. Molly Batterson stated that her office has pretty much doubled productivity since it has been in place due to not having to wait on the computer to get things done. The firewall from the City being removed is all that's left to be finished with that project. Public Works and the Rec department will be connected at that point as well with no more cost. 6. Alderman Munns brought up the business of the Televised Meetings which had been previously discussed with the Committee. There is a class at Waubonsie Community College that can be taken, which will then allow that person to take out the equipment to record the meetings for the City. Mayor Prochaska stated that if a current employee were to take on the task, they would then have to be paid for time recording. So this time would have to be a scheduled event or they will get paid overtime for a City employee. If the City finds someone not employed by the City presently to take the position,then it could be a flat fee. He suggested to first putting a memo out to current employees to see if it will work in-house first. If no one is interested, then look into the local community for help like the City does with the minute-taking. Mayor Prochaska stressed that this will be beneficial to the community to be able to watch the meetings from there home and now what current events are in the City. The Committee stressed to possibly find a part-time employee to fill this position so the City does not have to pay out more money for overtime pay. 7. Alderman Munns asked about the laptop discussion the Committee had at the previous meeting. He was wondering if this would be looked into having put on next year's budget. 5 Page 6 of 6 Mayor Prochaska stated it would not be a problem if the Committee knew it would work in the 5-year plan as far as being ready and set-up for E-packages. If the City is not set up for the E-packages,there is no need for having laptop computers available. City Administrator Tony Graff joined the conversation stating that he had spoken with the Administrator from Channahon regarding getting their packages together. The administrator is planning on sending Mr. Graff some pamphlets with ideas and prices for the City of Yorkville to look at to help with our own planning. Mr. Graff stated that most of the information that goes into the E-packages is being scanned in to their computers. Mr. Graff discussed the many options that come along with working with the E-packages. Mayor Prochaska discussed that this will save time with the minute reading time taken at the different meetings. If the Committee members are able to look at papers ahead of time on-line, corrections can be made then and time at the meeting will be spent on more important issues. Mr. Graff agreed that this would allow the public more necessary time as well. Mr. Graff also stated that they have their internship program being reviewed by NIU for the graduate program. They are looking to implement the government e-packets system where the intern would do all the leg work for the City. Molly Batterson stated that why they were looking at Laserfische was because you can do a lot more than just scan a document with it. She stated it scans every word on the document so that anyone can do a search for anything. 8. Mayor Prochaska stated that something that needed to be done right away, either with an intern or current employee, is the job of keeping up the web site. He has be told and noticed that only a partial of the information is making it there. Mr. Graff added that this has been a problem lately due to the server being under construction so much. The Committee agreed that someone needs to be put in charge of this issue. The Mayor stated that maybe the Coordinator position that has been discussed in the Mayor's office should be pushed along faster. Some of the duties of this position have been identified as taking care of the City Web site and to oversee the Video Recording of the Meetings. The Committee agreed this would relieve others of the other tasks that are taking up so much time by so many other people. Alderman Munns asked if there was any additional business to discuss. With nothing else to be discussed the meeting was adj ourned at 7:24pm. The next meeting for this Committee will be held on August 31, 2004 at 6:30pm. Meeting adjourned at 7:30 P.M. Minutes by: Sheila Teausaw 6