PISMO BEACH COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
Agenda Item #12.D
SUBJECT/TITLE:
TECHNOLOGY MASTER PLAN FOR FY 2023 THROUGH FY 2028
RECOMMENDATION:
Review and approve the City of Pismo Beach Technology Master Plan for FY 2023 through FY 2028.
BACKGROUND:
The City Council included funding in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Adopted Budget to develop an updated Technology Master Plan (TMP). In September 2019, the City issued a Request for Proposals for a firm to prepare a five-year Information Technology Strategic Plan, IT Assessment, and Disaster Recovery Plan. After a thorough evaluation process, the City selected ClientFirst Technology Consulting (ClientFirst) to provide this service.
On December 3, 2019, the City Council approved an agreement with ClientFirst to prepare the Technology Master Plan (TMP) and Disaster Recovery Plan. The majority of the plan was completed prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic beginning in March 2020.
With this significant event, various components of the City’s technology solutions were implemented to provide employees with remote working capabilities, virtual meetings, more services delivered online at a faster rate than anticipated, and several new cybersecurity initiatives that became a requirement in order to remain insured. As such, City staff paused the TMP until the rapid pace of implementing technology slowed and decisions about cybersecurity requirements were better defined. In 2022, City staff picked the TMP back up and ClientFirst worked with representatives from all aspects of City operations and management staff to update and finalize the TMP (Attachment 1).
Why Does the City Need a Technology Master Plan?
The City went through its first Five-Year Technology Master Plan, which was developed by a consultant, prioritized at the Department Head level, and adopted and funded by the City Council. That Five-Year Technology Master Plan was highly successful, moving the City from basic operations to a fully robust technology infrastructure with updated virtual servers, cloud solutions, improved security, improved backup storage, increased bandwidth to allow for cloud storage and increasing internet communication, fully capable on-line payment options, improved technology governance, and automated software solutions.
As technology is more accepted by the public and required with various agencies and vendors, IT projects are popular solutions to help City staff handle increasing requirements with a limited amount of time and resources. With numerous initiatives from various departments, there is a need to help prioritize the needs of all the various Department requests. In addition, the City’s technology efforts must continue to evolve in the technology world’s fast-changing environment and there is a need to help ensure that technology is meeting best practices. Finally, while the City does have redundant backup solutions with off-site and cloud storage, in the event of a cybersecurity attack or physical
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disaster, the City does not have a formal Disaster Recovery Plan that is accepted by the Council and staff based on a risk tolerance level.
Technology Master Planning Process
The Technology Master Planning process is intended to capture all the various technology needs for the City for the next five years. The first step included taking an inventory of all the City’s technology and identifying the key stakeholders. Then, ClientFirst held interviews with various Departments’ staff to determine needs, strategies, goals, and objectives. Third, ClientFirst developed preliminary initiatives and projects based on staff recommendations, research, and alternative solutions. On August 23, 2022 the Technology Steering Committee (City Manager and Department Heads) met with ClientFirst to plan and prioritize the various IT initiatives. Since that date, ClientFirst put together an estimated budget by fiscal year based on the prioritization meeting, which has been reviewed by the Technology Steering Committee. In parallel, ClientFirst met with IT staff in the City to develop technology best practices for operations, governance, infrastructure, and other needs to support the backbone of the City. The result of this work is the TMP.
Report: Technology Master Plan – November 2022
The TMP (Attachment 1) includes the purpose and background of the document, including a technology assessment, strategies, goals, and objectives, key issues and initiatives, and various IT and Departmental initiatives, and a budget and prioritization plan.
Key Initiatives
There are 43 initiatives in the TMP that are recommended to be funded and implemented over five and a half years from FY 2023 to FY 2028. These initiatives include projects that came out of the interviews with City staff and where the City needs to go to meet best practices, and the IT operations, infrastructure, telecommunication, and IT staffing needed to support the City staff. Finally, the initiatives include cybersecurity initiatives to meet requirements of the City’s insurance provider. Below is a list of some of the key initiatives in the TMP, where the details and the proposed budget can be found in the TMP.
Departmental Applications and Systems
Land Management System gap analysis and improvements
Management of digital evidence and storage requirements Police scheduling and time tracking system
Enterprise Asset Management system improvements
Smart Cities
Automated Water Meter reading
Smart parking (meter and management)
Downtown public and staff wi-fi
IT Infrastructure
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Replacing workstations on a 4-year cycle
Wi-fi mesh downtown network, largely for Police and Tourism Radio upgrades, redundant connection to Public Safety Facility, increase signal strength to support public safety needs
Internet bandwidth to support applications
Facility access and security cameras; additional disk storage to meet legal requirements
Cybersecurity
City Hall and Police Station backups to restore in 24 hours Multi-factor authentication
SCADA security improvements to meet requirements of federal law Managed detection and response solution to meet requirements Records and data retention to include electronic records and data
Disaster Recovery Plan
City staff are also working with ClientFirst on a Disaster Recovery Plan, which has been split into a Staff-facing IT Incident Response Plan, which will be shared internally and provided as a mandatory training to City staff, and a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan which outlines IT actions in the event of an incident. These documents will serve as important action plans in the event of a malware, ransomware, or other cybersecurity incident.
Return on Investment
The City has grown very quickly in the past 10 years in terms of its budget and technology requirements. Currently, the City spends about 2.31% of its operating budget on IT operations. This is below the recommended low benchmark of 3.0%, where the average is 3.82% for similar-sized municipalities. Investments in technology help City staff perform their duties more efficiently and have proven to reduce the number of operational staff needed. In order to maintain level staffing for most of the past decade, staff has used technology to keep up with demand. Each initiative in the proposed TMP provides more tools for staff to be more efficient with their time. For example, upgrading the radio system that supports Police, Water, and Wastewater SCADA systems, and Public Works field workers is critical for their communications and the safety of the public and its water and wastewater system. Implementation of the recommended upgrades would support the ability to help support improved radio coverage and would better support the incident command system, E911 radio dispatch, officer safety, public safety, coordinated support for emergency responders, etc.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Staff recommends that Council review and approve the City of Pismo Beach Technology Master Plan for FY 2023 through FY 2028 (Attachment 1).
FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impact of approving the attached TMP for FY 2023 and FY 2028 includes a commitment to providing sufficient funding for various initiatives laid out in the document.
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FY 2023 includes $554,150 of projects, of which, $481,621 is already budgeted, leaving an additional need of $72,529.
FY 2024 through FY 2028 project budgets are not yet budgeted, and these numbers would be refined through budget development to ensure that these projects can be supported based on all the various priorities of the City’s budget. This includes approximately $4.28 million of additional funding over the next 5 years, or $856 thousand on average per year. Below is a summary of the TMP project funding, which would most likely be included in the City’s Technology Services Fund. This fund is supported by various funding, including approximately 80% from the General Fund and 20% by all other funds.
ALTERNATIVES:
1. Do not approve the Technology Master Plan.
2. Provide staff with alternate direction.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. City of Pismo Beach Technology Master Plan FY 2023 through FY 2028 Prepared by: Meeting Date: November 15, 2022
Nadia Feeser, Administrative Services Director
City Manager Approval:
FY 2023 FY 2024* FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Initiatives 554,150$ 6,131,150$ 1,093,050$ 1,005,850$ 740,448$ 850,913$ Funding Sources (Funded,
Planned, and/or estimated) 481,621 5,218,200 93,200 43,200 43,200 143,200 Net New Funding 72,529$ 912,950$ 999,850$ 962,650$ 697,248$ 707,713$ *FY 2024 includes an estimated $5 million project for Automated Water Meters that would be included as part of the upc oming Water and Wastewater rate study, planned for Council approval in 2023.
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