Communication, Technology & Information Systems Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the CTIS committee meeting for, 03/04/2026, 08:30 in the morning in the Executive Conference, room. In attendance?

Councilor Cardenas here. Okay.

Councilman Moreno. And

Sherri Reardon here. We will have first a motion for the approval of the minutes from 02/04/2026. Do I have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve the minutes from 02/04/2026.

There are the minutes, so move.

All in favor? Aye. Okay. We have no citizens here to be heard on agenda items. So we'll move for the first agenda item, which is $95.78, award of contract to center for contract to center for Internet security, so CIS for CrowdStrike Endpoint Security Solution in the amount of $65,142.

Yeah. So CIS is actually a nonprofit organization that is partially funded by Homeland Security. They give us a a really deep discount on the CrowdStrike endpoint security software, which is a high level. It's just our antivirus software. Right?

It's you know, it replaced Trend Micro that we had here for many years. We replaced this back in 2022. We've been very happy with it as, you know, next generation, endpoint management. We have about 987 devices that are protected by CrowdStrike. This allows us to do everything from we have a a virus, we hear about it, somebody calls it into us, we can just, with a couple clicks of a button, lock that machine down, quarantine it without actually physically going to it first.

Also, CIS helps us by monitoring our systems proactively for us. So after hours and things of that nature, they also can help us with those things. This is just a renewal of our our current contract with them.

Any questions?

How many what is it called? Virus detections do we have? Well, software do we have? We only have this I think they have more than one. Right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

We we so we for different layers? Yeah. We use it's called security layers in-depth. So, you know, we have I think it was last meeting or two meetings ago, you know, we were getting Mimecast, which is kind of our web filtering, but that also does employee protection that there's agent on all of our devices. We have numerous layers of security. Is there one that

like, one do all, or is it better or you have to have it set up the way we have it set up? Like

Yeah. You kinda wanna do layers in-depth so that they all catch different things. There is some overlap between the different products. But, yeah, you you definitely need different products for different things. They they they specialize in different areas. So Okay. Thank you. Yep.

That statement, what would you say the specialty of this one is?

This is solely antivirus. Antivirus. This, yeah, this runs on every device we have. It's a little different than the old school antivirus where, you know, you had to actually click the scan your computer button and hope that, you know, it caught something. Used to bog it down. I mean, you're 100%. This is actually, as soon as you, for example, plug a flash drive into your laptop, before you can access that flash drive, it's already scanned, the whole entire flash drive. Any file that comes in is automatically scanned anytime you try to put anything on the machine. So it's a it's a real time, like, nonstop scanning going on on your machine. And it all runs in the background.

You don't notice it. You don't ever have to kick off those, like, big company wide scans that like you said, you know, on that Wednesday morning, everybody knows, better go grab a coffee. Then the virus kicked off. It'll be twenty minutes before I can use my computer again. Like, those days were kind of over. This does real time at all at all times.

Yeah. Alright. Would we like to make a motion?

Motion. Motion to approve.

I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Okay. Our next agenda item is award contract to UNA. Is that how you say it? UNA. UNA. Procurement in the amount of $26,500.

So, you know, you guys have heard about this product a whole bunch. They just they've rebranded. They this is actually a bonfire. So this is our e procurement system. This is a renewal of our our licensing for this year. So this is, you know, how we send out, you know, our bids, RFPs, everything in the digital world. We are purchasing has made another big push this year, and we are trying to, as an organization, just push everything through, you know, at this point as opposed to just doing the the old, you know, I need three quotes and stuff like that. We put it in there. We're absolutely are. It's much more transparent.

It's a lot easier for all the vendors to also submit things. I can tell you internally just from IT, we we've started using it more and more. It is really nice for the fact that it it's streamlined the whole bid process. They used to be really cumbersome for us to put together the bid package to get things out or RFP to put it out. You know, working with Milton has really helped us, like, streamline that whole thing. We we basically get to just put the core of what we understand in and quickly purchasing. We will layer up additional documents to get our bids out. It's made us a lot more efficient.

Is this an industry industry wide,

like, standard now, like, where people are are aware of this?

I I will say we I was actually just having a conversation a couple weeks ago with Milk about this. Like, we had zero negative feedback from, you know, contractors, third party contractors. This is how it is everywhere else. This is really this has actually brought us up into the

Yeah.

The current age. This is how everybody does it. And and bonfire or is used in a lot of places. So most of our contractors already have accounts, and they're familiar with it because they've used it in other cities.

They probably appreciate it too. Yes. Something else that's pretty cool too is, they have a big network. So vendors will, create an account for Joliet, sign up to receive notifications for things for Joliet. However, there is a bigger network. So even if someone isn't specifically signed up for Joliet, they, they can get notification that, you know, we've opened up a bid for something. So, I mean, it it it expands our reach significantly too.

So more vendors, potential vendors and things of that nature.

Yeah. Because you don't know what

you don't know is out there.

Yeah. Exactly.

Do the work? Mhmm.

Kinda like build build connect. Building connect is like, is that software where vendor or contractors go and work cities, municipalities, whatever, they go on there, they submit them bid. Right? So is that how kind of bonfire works?

Yes. Mhmm. Yep. And

then, like you said, it reaches out to everyone and not just

The people that are signed up? Yep. So If you're part of that network, then, again, now you're gonna get access now to Joliet, but you're reaching out to other vendors that might have signed up for a different municipality and now see that Joliet's offer is something that's different.

It's also easy for we we've seen it in one of our recent, one of the things we have out there right now for bid. But you can see, like, the the aggregators, they come in and they pick up our packets too. So they were they're redistributing. It makes a lot easier for them to do that. So, yeah, it is a it is a great way for us to put things out. And I don't I don't think we've had it up and running long enough to get real data on, like, are we getting more responses using this? I would suspect if, you know, I was a betting man, I would say Yeah. We we probably are gonna get a lot more responses using this system than we've been in the past.

How long do we have it up and running?

We started

It's been at least a year. About a year.

About a year. But it was not forced. I I wanna say until this year, we it was, you know, kind of a a beta phase where departments were asked to use it, and they were sampling it, but they were still submitting things the whole way also. So we're in both worlds where this year, we've kind of pushed everything's gotta go through. Got it. Yep. Alright.

Tony. Motion to approve t and p ninety five eighty. Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Okay.

9582, board of contract to Cities Digital Inc for Laser Beach document management system. Annual renewal in the amount of $75,050.

Alright. So this is our document management system. Again, we we implemented this back in 2022. This replaced our old content first document management system. After a full migration of all of that information, we started kicking off annual projects, basically, with different departments. We do back scan projects, so we've massively eliminated the amount of paper files that has been around the building have gone away. We're actually we only have a couple departments left on that.

It's amazing. I remember when you were starting that. It was just like, oh my gosh. Yes. How would

it ever happen? I'm sorry.

Oh, no. No. You're dead.

And then, you know, it it become kind of critical daily use for, like, city or HR, community development. I mean, they're in these the system every day. That's where they store a large amount of their files. And then we also are have started using it more and more for digital form creation. We use it for things like our on duty entry forms, our special events, which is one of the craziest workflows you could ever imagine.

Workflow because every department basically has to weigh in on special events and, you know, our business grants gets submitted through the laser free system, and we just continue to expand it. Like, that is it's one of our go to platforms now for any kind of digital form that needs a long term store in return to product. So this is our our annual renewal.

Is there special events for them getting any better? Like, I've seen it, and I had tried

to help somebody through it. I'm like

So we are actually

That's a lot. Yeah.

Long term, we are looking at and we'll probably be talking about this next month is we briefly talked about it last year, the enterprise permitting licensing software that we're gonna be bringing forward. That is kind of a long term target for the special permit the permitting process for all of that. That'll probably be much smoother and streamlined system. This is definitely a snap gap to get us there, but it it is very cumbersome, and it is oftentimes, I I think that's something also that the can is working on. Making the form makes sense. If you're doing a smaller event, you might not need to fill out this absorbent Yeah. It's it is food truck outside. Yes. Exactly.

Yeah. They have

the food truck outside.

Right now, it's just one form is, like, the catch all for everything, and it's a beast. Yeah. And

I've I've expressed that to Anne, and she's you know, she's got her team going and they're working on yeah. Because it's definitely her key. It's stopping a lot of events from happening because that is, Simplifying and streamlining. Oh, it's intimidating. Yeah. Absolutely.

Can can you make, like, a new form? Like, instead of one size fits all, can you just, hey. Download a new form. Hey. And do yeah. This is what you guys have do if it's a small type thing.

Or

I think the biggest issue that I that I learned the the the what I learned was that, like, even if it is something as simple as, like, I wanna have a food truck outside my building and close the streets, but you still have to, like, notify police, fire, everyone so they're aware. Mhmm. Because what if I close that street? But then when you can't close that street that day because we have. So that's the issue is kinda how do you every department has to be on the same page to be, you being aware of whether you're doing a food truck or you're gonna have a a thousand people festival. So it kinda I get that part of it. So it's one of those, like I said, there's a way for them to just check it off and know that they're aware and or they're closing the street.

Yeah. This

they are working on that.

Yeah. This is what we would you know, in our world, we look at is this is less of a technology issue. It's more of

a Yeah.

It's more of a process issue that we

have here. And then we transform it to technology.

How do

we streamline it?

Yeah. We need a more streamlined process here for the whole intake. And then to your point, then it's easy to make a form. But Yeah. And before we just make a form straight,

we just don't know there's no process yet to make

a form

for right now.

Don't you? Yes. You know, cc everybody. Alright.

Police department. Hey.

Can we do it or not? Yeah. Oh, man.

I did the file of it without a form, even our paper yet to say you're gonna take it. Yeah.

It was like, maybe change your.

There you go. AI. AI. Make me a form.

You can.

To approve. Oh.

Yeah. Sorry. Oh, yeah. That was good. Yep.

Got I a motion to approve TMP nine five eight two.

So move. K. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Alright. So old old and new business after final action or affirmation. I have a question. How are we doing on the technology portion for the the home inspections? Are we is that moving forward?

Yes. So it is e p and l. So we just finished negotiating better pricing, and we are now we we plan to bring that to the next committee meeting next week.

Oh, okay. Good. Yeah.

Yeah. So we are it's moving along. It was, our initial pricing was a little little higher than we were, willing to accept. So we we spent a few weeks going back and forth on working that down. So

So looks like we're gonna have a good streamlined Yeah. Process now. Yeah. Yeah. Love that.

I do have a comment. Sure. So it's

more of

a yeah. It's a comment. I don't know if it's an IT thing or if it's more of a department issue or yeah. So alright. For example, I

had a couple of people

I have had problems putting things on the zoning board, whether it's, you know, not big development, you know, small time people. So the question is, I understand when we go on the on the let's see. What is it?

Permits.

Yeah. No. It's on man. God darn it. I look at that on the computer. Alright. Go ahead with your developers. Right? So, you know, is there you know, you have your handbook for developers, but not everybody is, like, a a big time developer. So is there a way that we can kinda simplify it? Like, for example, you have the dates and then, you know, you just have the dates for the for someone that's trying put something on zoning board. And then if you don't meet or deadlines. You know, I guess that's another thing that they've been struggling with is deadlines where they submit something, then, someone from the planning department say, hey. You you need these five more things. And then they get them, like, oh, now you need five more things.

Is there, like, a one form do all or is it can I get what I'm saying? Yes.

Yeah. Was

that more like a department issue or is that an IT thing?

It's more of a a planning thing.

Planning thing? Okay.

But I can definitely let them know that this is a concern. We are also in the midst of kind of revamping the website anyways, so this would be a good time for them to kind of look at those things.

Because Yeah. We we want to handle this.

I don't know. I forgot how many Is there specific development? No. It's just No. Just businesses or Yeah.

Small businesses. You know, mom and pop shops. You know, not everybody has I did. Did. Big time attorneys. I did have a So just on that because

I did talk with Paulina in economic development and she was trying to put together a, like, a a smaller hemp because we had that same issue. Like you said, like, even, like, if I'm trying to open up a restaurant, a coffee shop, whatever. Yeah. But then like you said, you don't know everything that is kind of required. Yeah. And I know Paulina is an economic development working on a something to simplify a process Yeah. To give people a better and and then to have an understanding of how long it typically takes. So, again, if I'm trying to open up something and I wanna open up in February January, I wanna open in February, I will know. This is a three to six month process. Yeah. So you're aware this is a three to six month because it has to go through all the work. But Valina is working on something as well. So I think that could be a planning and

That'll come back

to you with eventually.

Eventually, then you have then once we have that, then it's like, then it have to go to digital. Okay. But that is something that's a good idea. It's a I've had the same issue people telling me.

So I'm just, you know, just trying to make these, like, simpler, like

So people can know what to expect. Yes.

Yeah. Exactly.

Because you're not professional.

Yeah. Yeah. A 100%. And people are like,

what do you mean

I gotta pay rent at this place for three months and then maybe I get it? Yeah. And, you know, sometimes it makes or breaks a business. You know? And I For sure. Small business. You know, big corporations,

they can handle it. They said their lawyers are

doing business. Yeah. So and just to kinda add it. Thanks for the help.

It's a

good question.

Alright. Well, I think that's it. We don't have any public hearing for public comments. So do we have a motion to adjourn?

All in favor?

So moved. All in favor?

Aye. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.