With one sentence, McHenry County’s interim information services manager on Thursday showed how murky–and potentially costly–the county’s computer situation has become.
“Before we can say what we need, we need to find out how we’re using what we’ve got,” Tom Sullivan said when asked about his department’s staffing needs by members of the county’s new information services task force. The 12-person task force includes Sullivan, other staff members, County Board members and other elected county officials.
No one disputed him, because no one knows where the county stands in dealing with a host of computer-related issues.
Last week, Sullivan and Circuit Court Clerk Vernon Kays told County Board members the county might need nearly $750,000 to upgrade computers and software just for the computer system that links the county’s law enforcement and justice departments–circuit clerk, circuit court, court services, public defender, sheriff and state’s attorney.
The work would include replacing 111 old computers that would be strained to the limit running the new software the system requires. On some 200 other machines that can handle the software, the county still needs to upgrade hard drives and memory. New network servers, which link groups of personal computers, also are needed.
Because the law enforcement computer system holds information pertaining to arrests, criminal cases, civil cases and other information important to law enforcement and the courts, it is one of the county’s most vital systems. But the county also has dozens of other systems throughout the government center and at several off-site locations. So the county’s computer-related costs could grow much higher than the $750,000 needed for the upgrade.
A July 14 information services report lists 72 computer projects under way in departments throughout the county. The status on 60 of the projects is listed as “to be determined,” because no one knows how much more work needs to be done on them or whether the projects have been budgeted.
Sullivan took over the information services department on an interim basis after last month’s departure of department administrator Carl Pohrte. Since Pohrte’s departure, Sullivan has reported the former administrator shared virtually no information about the computer projects, including efforts to avoid systemwide crashes in 2000 due to the so-called millennium bug.
County officials also say they have learned of several contracts with outside computer vendors that they say Pohrte entered into without informing his staff or the County Board. The board plans to address three of the contracts at its meeting next Tuesday.
In addition, county officials are studying toll-free telephone lines that they say Pohrte reportedly installed without approval. Those lines appear to be used mainly by lawyers or others who call the courthouse on legal matters, according to Purchasing Director Donald Widick. Widick said he learned of the phone lines only a few days ago and does not know how much they are costing the county.
Pohrte has been working out of state and was unavailable for comment.
At Thursday’s task force meeting, Sullivan said he believes his staff of two dozen is already strained just keeping up with day-to-day maintenance of existing systems. The extra work needed to upgrade computer programs, install new hardware and reprogram computers likely will take more staff or help from outside computer vendors.
In addition to determining staffing needs, the committee also needs to determine possible budget impacts.
The task force plans to evaluate each department’s projects to see how many can be delayed or phased in to free up staff and money to concentrate on the most important projects.
