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Commission Minutes—July 27, 2023 5753 <br />SPECIAL MEETING OF CASS COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />MEETING IN BUDGET SESSION <br />JULY 27, 2023 <br />1. MEETING CALLED TO ORDER <br />Chairman Chad M. Peterson called the special meeting to order at 8:00 AM on Thursday, July 27, <br />2023, with all members present as follows: Tony Grindberg, Duane Breitling, Jim Kapitan, Mary <br />Scherling, and Chad M. Peterson. Also present were County Finance Director, Brandy Madrigga; <br />County Administrator, Robert Wilson; Human Resource Director/Assistant County Administrator, <br />Tracy Peters; Accounting Manager, Sarah Heinle; and Accountant, Gerald Jenson. <br />2. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY <br />Bob Henderson, Information Technology Director was present to review the 2024 IT budget request. <br />He said the 2024 budget includes $169,000 for maintenance agreements network software, an <br />increase of $33,000 from 2023; $30,000 for maintenance agreements network equipment, an <br />increase of $12,450 from 2023; and $200,000 for network equipment, an increase of $135,072 from <br />2023. He said the large increase in network equipment is due to the request to purchase 5 new <br />servers and 2 new storage devices. He said the equipment is needed to replicate the Courthouse <br />network to a secondary location in the County for redundancy and failover in the event of a disaster. <br />Mr. Henderson reviewed the 2024 GIS budget request. He said the request includes a purchase to <br />upgrade the current GIS system from an ArcGIS environment to an ArcGIS Enterprise (AE) <br />agreement. He said AE allows for access to a wide variety of features the County does not currently <br />have such as snowplow tracking and more concise election data tracking features. He said the cost <br />to upgrade is $59,000 per year and relies on the IT Department to work with individual departments <br />on features and tracking. Mrs. Scherling asked if the North Dakota Association of Counties (NDACo) <br />has resources for GIS. Mr. Henderson said NDACo has resources for counties, however, it is <br />simpler than the GIS environment the County has now. Mr. Peterson asked if other entities within <br />the County such as townships could have access to the updated environment for usage. Mr. <br />Henderson said no, the license agreement with ArcGIS does not allow the County to give licenses to <br />other entities. <br />Mr. Grindberg said since 2020, the IT budget has gone up by 1 million, he asked if IT has a five year <br />plan for the Board to get a better picture of future needs. Mr. Henderson said he has prepared a five <br />year plan per the goal in the County's Strategic Plan that was completed in June. He said the budget <br />increased significantly last year due to the implementation of the ERP system to replace the AS400. <br />He said the 2024 budget includes funds to keep licenses to access legacy data in the AS400 for the <br />Human Service Zone. He said the plan is to no longer support the AS400 in 2025. <br />Mr. Henderson reviewed the 2024 Technology Trust budget request. He said the request is <br />consistent with previous years. He said the trust is used as a method to purchase county-wide <br />software and hardware, which are then billed to departments on a per-user basis. <br />MOTION, passed <br />Mrs. Scherling moved and Mr. Grindberg seconded to approve the 2024 <br />Information Technology and Technology Trust preliminary budgets as <br />presented. On roll call vote, the motion carried unanimously. <br />3. HOMEWARD ANIMAL SHELTER <br />Tasha Haug, Director of Homeward Animal Shelter was present to review the 2024 budget request. <br />The request is for $7,500, an increase from $5,500 in 2023. Ms. Haug said inflation has increased <br />the cost of care for animals as well as an increase in the number of animals that need rescue. She <br />said the contribution from the County will supplement the cost of daily care, food, and veterinary <br />care for animals until they are adopted.