Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/13/08 Technologies May 13, 2008 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE TECHNOLOGIES BOARD HELD ON May 13, 2008 The Regular Session of the TECHNOLOGIES BOARD of The Colony, Texas was called to order at 6:30 pm on the 13th of May, 2008 at CITY HALL, in the Library Conference Room, City Hall, 6800 MAIN STREET, THE COLONY, TEXAS, with the following Technologies Board members present: Mark Porter Chad Joyce Jack Turner Jacob Leick Bill Swink Beverly Jones With six out of six members present a quorum was established and the following items were discussed. 11.0 I Call Meetin~ to Order: 6:30 P.M. I 2.0 I DISPOSITION OF MINUTES Acceptance of Technologies Board Minutes for a meeting held on January 22, 2008. I 3.0 I CITIZEN INPUT None ~l AGENDA ITEMS 4.1 Discuss, nominate, and vote on board appointments for vacant positions. Mr. Swink made a motion to nominate Mr. Turner as Chairman. Ms. Jones seconded the motion. Motion carries. Mr. Porter made a motion to nominate Mr. Swink as Vice- Chairman. Ms. Jones seconded the motion. Motion carries. Mr. Porter will continue as secretary . 4.2 Consider and approve a recommendation for fiber optic connectivity between City Hall and Municipal Courts located at 5151 North Colony Blvd. Bruce Maker, IT Manager, explained that the city is working on a plan to install a fiber loop around the city for city facilities. This would be the first phase of the loop and would allow for 361GB connections. Mr. Maker explained the options that were considered. Mr. Maker explained our current connectivity which is two T1 lines from City Hall and the Municipal Courts facility. Mr. Swink asked Mr. Maker for an overview of the fiber May 13, 2008 loop for the city. Mr. Maker explained the different phases that would be installed in the city for the completion of the loop and which city facilities would be connected. Mr. Swink asked if the fiber expansion will include enough bandwidth for the police department. Mr. Maker said it would be more than sufficient. Mr. Maker said the connection would also be used for data recovery for the Courts and Police facility because we would be able back up their information at City Hall. Mr. Joyce asked who would be responsible for repairs to the fiber line since it is city owned. Mr. Maker said the SLA will state that the contractor who installs the line will be available within four hours to pinpoint where the line is cut and then depending on who cut the line that individual would be responsible for making the repair. Mr. Turner asked what the cost would be to install the fiber from City Hall to the Courts facility. Mr. Maker said the estimated cost is $103,000 and the funds will be coming from the Court Technology Fund. Mr. Turner asked if the board would see the bids when they are turned in. Mr. Maker said he could bring the bids back to the board if they would like to see them. Mr. Turner asked if City Council would have to approve the project. Mr. Maker said they would. Mr. Joyce asked what the upgrade possibilities would be. Mr. Maker said we would be able to change the 1 GB modules to 10GB modules. Ms. Jones asked if this is a onetime cost. Mr. Maker said it would be. Ms. Jones asked ifthis would replace the $300 per month that we are paying for the Tl lines. Mr. Maker said it is actually $600 per month because we have two T1 lines and it will replace that cost. Mr. Turner asked what the cost savings would be to run 18 pair fiber instead of 36 in this section. Mr. Maker said it would only save a few hundred dollars. Most of the cost is coming from engineering and boring. Mr. Maker explained that he wants to run 36 for future expansion capabilities. Mr. Porter made a motion to approve a recommendation for the Fiber Optic solution. Mr. Joyce seconded the motion. Motion carries. 4.3 Consider and approve a recommendation to contract a video security consultant. Mr. Maker explained that there are multiple departments that would like to have a video security solution. He is trying to come up with a solution that will work for all of the departments and is flexible and secure. The IT department has looked at several options for this solution and would like to recommend Indigo Vision. They would like to bring in a third party consultant to design this project. The consultant would not be able to bid on the installation of the project. Mr. Porter asked where the funding would come from. Mr. Maker explained that the Utility department, Parks, Police and Courts have money in their budgets to pay for the consultant. Mr. Swink asked if each of the consultants would make presentations to the Council. Mr. Maker said that IT would determine the top three consultants and let them make a presentation to the Technology Board. The consultant will then design a plan that can be phased in. Mr. Joyce asked if the fiber loop plan would need to be finalized before the consultant could design the video security plan. Mr. Maker said it would not need to be because we could design it based on the plan and we could phase it in as it is completed. Ms. Jones asked if the consultant would be required to be the project manager over the installation of the system to ensure it is installed correctly. Mr. Maker said that the city would probably act as the project manager because it could be several years to implement the plan. Mr. Joyce asked how long it would take a consultant to design a plan. Mr. Maker said possibly six to eight months. Mr. Porter 2 May 13,2008 asked when they are looking for the consultant to start. Mr. Maker said that once they put out the RFQ for the consultant he is expecting it to take about one month to get someone hired. Mr. Swink asked if the system will be backed up at the Police station. Mr. Maker said that we will have backups at City Hall and the Police Station depending on where the cameras are located. Ms. Jones asked why the backup could not be located at the pump station. Mr. Maker explained that there is not a hardened room at the pump station. Mr. Swink asked about the retention period of the videos. Mr. Maker said that the Police department would like the videos stored online for 30 days and then they will burn anything they need to DVD. Mr. Swink made a motion to approve a recommendation for RFQ's for a video security consultant. Ms. Jones seconded the motion. Motion carries. 4.4 Consider and approve a recommendation to install a media server. Mr. Maker explained that the city would like to put in a media server to broadcast the City Council meetings and Planning and Zoning meetings over the internet because they are currently being hosted by a third party site and they are not being archived online. This media server will allow us to provide several formats of media player. Mr. Joyce asked if this would be on the city's website. Mr. Maker said there would be links on the site for redirects. Mr. Joyce asked if the citizens would be able to download the video. Mr. Maker said they would not be able to that it will be streaming video. Mr. Turner asked if citizens would be able to view past meetings. Mr. Maker said they would like to store up to one year of Council and Planning and Zoning meetings based on the drive that he is looking at. Mr. Swink asked if the meetings are archived after one year. Mr. Maker said they are currently put on VHS tapes but we would be converting to DVD with this solution. Mr. Maker said the approximate cost for this project is $8,000 for hardware and software. He is recommending the Helix 25 server because it will allow for 25 users which will be more than adequate at this time. If we need to expand it in the future it is a simple upgrade. Mr. Turner asked if Mr. Maker had looked at any other servers. Mr. Maker said that the only other solution he found would be a windows media server and that would limit our citizens to only using windows. Mr. Porter asked where this project will be funded. Mr. Maker said it will be funded from Capital Improvement Projects. Mr. Joyce asked who made the request for this server. Mr. Maker said the Communications Director and the City Manager requested it. Mr. Turner asked what the support is. Mr. Maker said there is one year support and then we will pay $800 each year after. Ms. Jones made a motion to approve a recommendation to install a media server. Mr. Porter seconded the motion. Motion carries. 4.5 Consider and approve a recommendation for purchase of a new rack mount blade server for Police Department/Courts and Parks and Recreation. Mr. Maker eXplained that we would like to install an IBM Blade S series server. Mr. Maker explained that we would like to install this server to consolidate the servers that are currently at the Police and Courts facility. Mr. Maker is recommending the IBM Blade center because we currently have an IBM system here at City Hall. Mr. Swink asked if this would free up space. Mr. Maker said it will free up space in the room as well as lower the temperature in the room because we will be able to consolidate several of the 3 May 13, 2008 current servers on to one blade server. Mr. Swink asked if Mr. Maker had looked at the BTU rating for the proposed blade server to see what the energy savings would be. Mr. Maker said it is a one to one savings and the blade server would be using less energy because we will be reducing the number of servers in the room. Mr. Joyce asked if we would be getting 24 hour support for the IBM. Mr. Maker said that we currently have 24 hour support for the IBM blade that we have and we would be getting it with the new blade as well. Mr. Joyce asked if Mr. Maker had gotten prices on the IBM versus the HP system. Mr. Maker said the HP system is approximately twice the cost of the IBM. Ms. Jones asked if they will be hot swappable. Mr. Maker said we would be. Mr. Joyce made a motion to approve a recommendation for the purchase of a blade server for Police Department/Courts and Parks and Recreation. Mr. Porter seconded the motion. Motion carries. [I[] ADJOURNMENT With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m. APPROVED: ,4~ ,~ Andre urner, Chairman Mark Porter, Secretary 4