Commissioners wrestle with IT recommendation

Wahkiakum County officials on Tuesday agreed to put off a decision on how to restructure the county’s information technology (IT) management until late July.

The county auditor’s office has handled IT management since courthouse offices started using computers, but the job has grown so technical and time consuming that even with assistance from a technical consulting company, More Power computing, joining the effort, the office wants to lose the responsibility.

At a discussion two weeks ago, commissioners asked the IT committee to evaluate possible courses of action and make a recommendation.

IT committee member Chris Weiler presented that recommendation on Tuesday: The committee recommended the county create a new employee position and hire an IT specialist who would work under the board of commissioners and be responsible for planning, management and problem solving. The county would continue to contract with the technical consultants but at a reduced level of service.

Commissioners Mike Backman and Blair Brady expressed lots of concern about the potential cost of adding a new employee. They asked the IT committee to analyze costs and discuss possible service arrangements with More Power.

“Ultimately we need a leader, someone who can truly understand strategic needs,” Weiler said. “Whatever we do needs to make sense for the organization.”

The committee considered four options—a full time employee, a half time employee, a hybrid with a part-time employee and consultant, and simply hiring a consultant to take over responsibilities.

Creating a full time position would yield the most stability, Weiler said. A part time position would quite likely be subject to high turnover as the highly qualified employee could easily find full time work elsewhere.

“My biggest concern is financial,” said Commissioner Brady.

The county was lucky to get sufficient timber revenue and a supplemental appropriation from the legislature for encumbered timberland, which allowed the board to avoid having to lay off staff.

If that doesn’t occur again this year, Brady said, “We will be talking layoffs.”

“That’s the biggest challenge in my mind,” he said.

Backman, too, was concerned with costs. He doubted there would be enough work to justify a full time position and wanted more consideration of part time employees.

He suggested an employee with part time IT responsibility could also fill in when offices need clerical assistance.

Brady commented that the concept of a floating employee doesn’t jibe with the county’s contract with union employees. “You can’t do it the way you’re thinking,” he said.

“If they’re sitting there twiddling their thumbs, they can answer the phone,” Backman replied.

After more discussion, Backman and Brady agreed they’d like to have a detailed job description to consider and an analysis of how funds would shift so they could calculate the actual potential cost.

Backman also suggested the board hire an independent consultant to analyze the situation and make a recommendation. He noted More Power has representation on the IT committee.

Weiler responded that the More Power representative was included only when discussing technical issues, not contractual arrangements.

“Let’s schedule an IT workshop in July,” Brady said. “In the meantime, we can look at things on our own.”