Nowthen City Council Budget meeting, August 14, 2017

What was on the agenda

2 items as recorded in the minutes, each with a short summary of what was at issue.

1. 1IT managed services contract renewal proposal (RB Computer Service / Randy Barney)

   Discussion of renewing the city’s managed services agreement, adding a Barracuda firewall subscription model due to ransomware concerns, and potentially dropping unused workstations from coverage.

   The council heard from Randy Barney of RB Computer Service about renewing the city’s managed-services agreement with added security measures due to increasing ransomware and malware risks. Barney proposed requiring a Barracuda firewall (subscription model) as part of renewal, discussed monthly costs (including per-computer and server charges), and council discussed dropping unused workstations from coverage to reduce the monthly increase; no vote was captured in the provided transcripts.

   No motion or vote is captured in the transcripts provided in this bundle.

   • RB Computer Service contract renewal
   • Barracuda firewall subscription
   • IT security and ransomware

   Discussion only
   0:37↗So for the record, for those watching online, this is Randy Barney of RB Computer Service. We currently have our contract with RB's. And so we're going to discuss budget proposals for this coming year.1:55↗But we've seen a tremendous amount of ransomware that has been circulating across the internet. The spyware, the keyloggers, the notorious spam malware that's circulating everywhere. And what it's doing is it's finding its way through these consumer grade routers, or low introductory-based business firewall routers.2:17↗We arrived with the product that has been around for many years. It's the Barracuda firewall.3:35↗In a nutshell, basically what I'm proposing here for the City of Melbourne, the same thing I'm doing with all the rest of our clients, with the renewal of the new service agreement for the upcoming year, I'm making it mandatory that anybody that wants to have us maintain their equipment under a service agreement plan, …5:15↗I think the cost to go to this next year, which increased, there's an increase, a net increase with everything in place, about $167.50 per month cost difference. The reason it's not a $200 increase is we are dropping one computer off the agreement that was on last year, which reduced the cost.5:28↗Each computer that we have as part of the agreement is a $60 per month cost, and the server is $250 plus the backup.14:34↗So does this $840 a month, if we're getting rid of that extra computer, does that include the cost of the firewall, or is the Barracuda firewall in addition to? The Barracuda firewall itself is the price that I gave for you, the total cost included in the Barracuda firewall. That is the $200 per month cost that's embed…15:42↗Can the firewall be purchased outright? It cannot. It's a subscription model. I don't even own it. You won't own it.21:59↗So the cost will go up for the last four months of this year. Where is that in our? It should be under professional services.

2. 2Property assessing services proposal (Mary Wells and Eric Spokwist)

   Presentation and Q&A on a proposed five-year contract for city assessing services, including claimed savings versus the county and service approach (inspections, appeals support, flexibility).

   The council heard a proposal from Mary Wells and Eric Spokwist to provide property assessing services under a five-year contract with a locked-in rate, claiming roughly 20% savings (about $5,000 per year) compared to the current arrangement. They described their approach to inspections, appeals support, and flexibility for residents; no decision or vote was captured in the provided transcripts.

   No motion or vote is captured in the transcripts provided in this bundle.

   • assessing services contract proposal
   • independent assessor proposal

   Discussion only
   28:18↗Now we're going to talk about property assessing services.28:31↗Welcome. We have Eric Spokwist and I assume Mary Wells.31:59↗What we've proposed in this contract, first of all, provides us with financial flexibility. Mary and I, we've looked at our numbers and things that we charge everywhere else. And what we're proposing to you is roughly about a 20% savings. It would be close to $5,000 a year for your current home contract.32:48↗What we do is we have a five-year contract that we will lock the rate in. The only changes you would have during that time is if your parcel number increases, if you have a subdivision where people split their lots or something, there's an extra charge for every parcel, which is how the county charges it.35:55↗That's all included in the contract.

Sources

Documents and recordings archived for this meeting, when available.

• Document

  City Council Budget Meeting — 2017-08-14 Budget Minutes (2017-08-14)

  Minutes · Monday, August 14, 2017

  2 pages

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• Video

  Meeting recording

  YouTube

  Transcript · 2432 segments · 2:34:27

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