HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/04/2013 TECH
November 4, 2013
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE TECHNOLOGIES BOARD
HELD ON
November 4, 2013
The Regular Session of the TECHNOLOGIES BOARD of The Colony, Texas was called
to order at 6:30 pm on the 4th of November, 2013 at CITY HALL, in the City Managers
Conference Room, City Hall, 6800 MAIN STREET, THE COLONY, TEXAS, with the
following roll call:
Bill Swink present
Stephen Hoffman present
Joye Grube present
Lyle Snider present
Juan Martinez present
Kevin Van Winkle absent
Allen Harris present
Council Liaisons
Mayor Joe McCourry present
Jeff Connelly present
With six out of seven members present a quorum was established and the following items
were discussed.
1.0 CALL MEETING TO ORDER
Meeting called to order at 6:30
1.1 General announcements
None
1.2 Staff announcements
Ted Ringener, IT Manager for the City of The Colony, stated that there are plans
to update the audio and visual equipment in the Court room. He also gave an
update on the upgrade to the email server. The upgrade will be finished by weeks
end going from exchange 2003 to exchange 2010.
1.3 Council announcements
Mayor McCourry announced that he would like to pull item 4.3 to be discussed at
a later date.
2.0 DISPOSITION OF MINUTES
2.1 Acceptance of Technologies Board Minutes for a meeting held on June
3, 2013.
Motion to approve- Swink; second by Martinez; motion passed with all ayes.
1
November 4, 2013
3.0 CITIZEN INPUT
There were no citizens present for input.
4.0 AGENDA ITEMS
4.1 Receive presentation from the TCGTV group on equipment request and
needs and make recommendations to council. (Kuether)
Richard Kuether, volunteer for the TCGTV group, briefly discussed the duties of
the group and the needs for new equipment based on the state of the current
equipment. Board member Stephen Hoffman asked Mr. Kuether to get together a
list of priorities for the group as to what equipment is most critical and needs to
be replaced first and bring the list back to the board so they can have a better
idea of what they are recommending.
Allen Harris made a motion to table this item for a future meeting; second by
Grube; motion passed with all ayes.
4.2 Discuss Technology Improvements for Fire Department to include software
and radio system. (Plemons)
Captain Chris Plemons of the Police department gave a power point presentation
on the software and radio system changes that will be done at the Fire
department. The Fire Department will be transitioning their current Firehouse
software over to New World Systems which is what the Police department
currently uses. This will allow the Fire department access to more information
when responding to calls as well as allow for ease of use. The Police department
will be giving the Fire department their current Toughbook computers that they
are in the process of replacing. Captain Plemons stated that these computers will
need to be replaced in the next budget year as they are already at end of life. The
new radio system will allow the Fire department to be in touch with departments
from surrounding cities that currently they cannot communicate with due to
differing radio systems.
4.3 Discussion on performing research of license plate readers. (Shallenburger)
Item was pulled by Mayor McCourry to be discussed at a later date.
4.4 Review and discuss website hosting vendors and the pros/cons of hosting the
city's websites internally. (Ringener)
Ted Ringener discussed the recent outages involving the City website and the
need to look to a new vendor or the possibility of hosting the website internally.
All board members were in agreement that they would be willing to assist in the
search for a new vendor. Board member Hoffman recommended that Mr.
Ringener send a list of requirements to the board so that each member can do
their own research and bring the information back to the IT department at a
future meeting for review.
2
November 4, 2013
4.5 Review and discuss options for new data backup solution for the city.
(Ringener)
Ted Ringener discussed the backup solutions that we have used over the years
and what we are currently using. He came up with some requirements that we
would need in order to be able to backup all of the data we currently have as well
as room for future growth. He presented a couple of different options that he
reviewed and went over the drawbacks and advantages of 'each product. He
explained that he would like to move forward with purchasing the Unitrends
appliance due to the fact that this is a budgeted item and the quote he received
from Unitrends came in under the approved budget as well as provides room for
future growth.
Motion to approve- Grube; second by Swink; motion passed with all ayes.
4.6 Discussion and consideration revision of five year plan. (Ringener)
Ted Ringener presented the latest version of the five year plan to the board. He
explained the reasoning behind some of the changes to the five year plan and told
them that this is an ongoing list that is reviewed every budget year and changes
as needs change.
5.0 ADJOURNMENT
With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
APPROVED:
Stephen Hoffman, Chair Betty P#plin, Reco ding Secretary
3