Administrative BriefCITY COMMISSION INFORMATION MEMORANDUM
August 9, 2012
ADMINISTRATIVE BRIEF FROM JACK ROLFS
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
The Computer Technology Department continues to focus on enhancing the city's ability to
provide public services, through the use of technology. Some of the activities we have been
working on, since our last update to you in May 2012, are listed below.
A new Public Safety Intranet for the Police Department and the Sheriff's Office has been
implemented. This is maintained by the Police Department and they can change content
very quickly to suit their needs. Live news updates and the ability to enter some pertinent
news information from the field that other field users can immediately see, are some of the
features that make this new Intranet quite popular.
We have implemented an internal Help Desk system for Computer Technology. We can now
track work tickets much easier than before and the reporting capabilities are very strong.
The fifty new desktops that were part of our PC bid this year ended up containing defective
disk drives. All of the drives were replaced by the vendor and we are in the process of
changing all of the purchased drives with new ones. It is taking considerable time to replace
the drives that were already in production, but it is a necessary step to ensure we will have
quality desktops in the field for years to come.
We are continuing to virtualize servers using VMWare and we are in the process of working
on desktop virtualization testing.
We have completed the switch to a new firewall and it is working well. The new firewall has
the capability to handle multiple Internet connections, so we have added a second line that
has considerably sped up our Internet response times. CT should be popular for at least a
week or two because of this speed increase!
We have implemented Firehouse Web, which gives browser access to our Firehouse
software. A package to aid our Fire Inspectors is next on the list.
We worked with the Parks and Recreation staff to implement security cameras at Kenwood
Cove. Illegal activity was "on film" within the first few days. Technology can be a wonderful
thing!
MONDAY'S MEETING
Enclosed are other items on the agenda. If any Commissioner has questions or cannot
attend the meeting, please contact me.
Jason A. Gage, City Manager