Communication, Technology & Information Systems Committee - Regular Meeting

Okay, everyone. Welcome to the, CTIS meeting, December 3, in the Executive Conference Room at 08:30AM. In attendance are, councilman Cesar Cardenas and councilwoman Sherry Reardon. Juan Marino was unable to attend. We'll start with well, that was roll call roll call. So we will start with the approval of the minutes from 10/01/2025.

Approval. I move a motion to approve the minutes.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Do we have any citizens to be heard on our agenda item? None. So we'll move on to our first agenda item, which is, 9246, award a contract to Orbis Solutions Inc. For the surveillance system hardware and installation at the Ottawa Street parking deck in the amount of $116,927.90.

Yeah. So this is a basically, what the title is. We're we have no camera system at all at the Ottawa Street parking deck. We, you know, obviously need to put new equipment in there. This will cover all of the stairwells, the elevator, the first two floors of the parking deck.

We're gonna be putting in about 27 cameras. This includes all of the cabling, mounting, and all the other equipment to run this back to what we call it's a it's called a NEMA box. It's basically an outdoor little server box that we'll have mounted on one of the walls. After we have we're actually be as part of the city square project, there'll be a whole entire IT room built in that parking deck. Once that has been built, we will probably come back with another project to add cameras to the other other floors of the deck. But after our surveying and talking with public works on the actual usage of the parking deck, the first two floors are where all the heavy traffic is. It's not often that they're using more than the first couple floors. Six.

Oh, there are.

Yeah. You know, so the the day to day traffic is usually on those two first two floors anyways. Also, that allows us to capture all of the traffic moving in and out of the the parking deck. So anything if there even there was something that happened on the other floors, we would still capture that. And we do have we will capture anything in the stair walls up and down the hole. That was that was a big deal. Yeah. The stair walls are covered

All way.

All the way. Because that was the big that was the big concern is making sure that those stair walls were covered. Yeah. And the elevator entrances were all covered. So those are covered on every floor. Cameras throughout the floor though. It's just the first two.

Do these have a live feed to our police department or is that just

Google manager

that's what they have?

Yeah. So this is a part of our Genentech system. So everybody that has normal access to Genentech would still have access to to the parking deck. And, you know, it also combines with again, once we build out the there'll be, like, a a server room there. There'll be a small electrical closet there. Those things will also be on the same Genentech swiping system that the rest of city facilities are on. So it it's part of our overall security system.

Well, the the stairwells are the important thing. Yes. Yeah. Everybody's got it.

If they

got a car, they gotta come out one way. Yes. So Yep.

And I think they definitely have to, like, highly publicize it so people know and feel safe, right, to know that there is because right now it's dark and scary and, like, what's going on there versus now we can show there's cameras at all, you know, people signage and things of that sort to make sure that people are aware. But then also feel safe knowing that there is.

And it also tells the bad guys you're being watched. Yeah. So you're not gonna get away with it. Okay. Anything else? Okay. You like to make a motion to move 9246 to the council?

I would like to make a motion to move 9246 to the council. Perfect.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. 9247 approved funding for public safety PC replacement in the amount not to exceed $250,000.

Yeah. So this is a not to exceed amount. We're trying we've been trying something new over the last couple of months with a with just a couple of the cool squad cars where instead of using the GTAC laptop, which is a semi rugged laptop, using Lenovo laptops in those vehicles. We kind of wrote the memo to allow us to continue that pilot project, but still fall back to the GTACs where needed. We've gotten, for the most part, positive feedback. I don't know, Chris, if you've gotten anything other than positive feedback. I'm hoping not. Up to this point, we've just gotten positive feedback on it. But they are

He looks

like he's

He looks

like he's swallowing.

You open that door.

But it has it is a, you know, it is a significant amount of savings over the some the non rugged devices are significant savings over the ruggedized g tach devices. Yeah. If you if you have other if you had other issues or concerns.

Not not not overlaying. I think it's been positive, but the one of the biggest concerns has to do with there's no handle that's on it. And I don't think there is an option for a handle, at least not what we've seen so far.

We that's actually in here. So there's a there's a rugged case we can put onto the device itself that we don't we obviously don't normally deploy for people who work in office spaces, but there is a case that we can add to the device.

No. I saw that. But, like so when the officer is sitting there and, like, they're doing a report or something like that, they'll they'll take the laptop out a lot of times and they will take it with them to the jail, take them to the station, and and be able to do their their work. And a lot of times, they're either got a person in their hand, like they're escorting them in, and they'll grab the the laptop in another hand. You know? So the handle comes really important. So if they don't have a handle, I think our thought is, you know, it can fall, break easier. And I know it's cheaper, so it's easier to replace, but it's still a concern of ours. And I think the other concern that came up was I know you guys addressed it with the cables because, again, we have to do only mounting in the squad. So right now, we have everything in GTEC, which is very universal.

So you can kinda, you know, plug and play. So we have to change out all the squads with new adapters. But the the plugs that go into it, I think you guys switched over to something that's magnetic Yes. Or something. There is a concern with the magnetic part about it screwing up the internals. There's been some I don't know if we've seen that yet or anything, but that just I don't know if it's an issue.

I And it might

be more specific to certain magnets, but that is only a concern that could affect performance. I don't know if that's something we

No. So the the magnet concern is is a not concern. Most devices nowadays are on I mean, all of our phones probably have a magnet case on them. I I mean, magnet I mean, these are very low.

Okay. Do I know what was doing?

Actually, I actually, this is so you guys know what it looks like. I use it on my laptop myself. So this is a magnetic connector. So when I sit at my desk, the my dot does magnet connect. Yeah. So I don't have to actually plug things in. Because the concern was is the amount of times you guys would have to take it in and out. Right. If you're plugging into the port, it wears the port down. With the magnet connector, one, it makes it super easy to just click disconnect. So that was how we address that, and there there's no issues with the magnet.

Does that take the cord out of play too? So those cords that break down,

you know Yes. Yes. It makes it so the it's the cord is protected and also the laptop. And I've been using it myself for months, and I've had zero issues that we we just kinda deployed it first to just people at desks to see how it would work because we actually just run into that problem. Like, myself, every time I go to a meeting, I'm unplugging, plugging back in, and I was wearing down the ports on my own laptop. So

Makes sense. Do you have any question?

I guess, yeah, the so is this something that we wanna try differently with the case, like, where needed to have that, that the case has a handle?

Yeah. And so that's kinda how we wrote the memo was to allow for do we wanna roll this out still? We still consider this kind of in a pilot phase. We we absolutely don't want to Compare. You know. Yeah. Because I think with the numbers we have here, we would if we were to go just fully Lenovo, we'd be able to buy, like, a 125 outfit outfit a 125 vehicles. We have we don't wanna do that. Right? We don't wanna outfit a 125 vehicles and then find out that there's some real big issue and have to try to roll that back.

What we would like to do is probably outfit another 10 vehicles, let them be bake out in the field for a couple months, make sure especially now, the weather being what it is, we wanna make sure that these devices are gonna be function properly in the winter, get through that, and then roll out. And then kind of do a slow roll out over the next, probably, six to eight months. And then by this time next year, we'll know for sure whether or not Lenovo is the right way to go or go to GTACS.

How many do we have out there now?

We have about 300 vehicles.

Do we have, like, that we're doing piling for?

Oh, oh, yeah.

Will they be exposed to this extreme weather we're having? No. No. We'll know.

The the vehicles we have now are good because they're pool vehicles. We have multiple operators in the vehicles.

And they sit outside at

night. Yeah.

Yeah. That's good. Yeah. So do we have the cases available for for them now, or would we have to

We have the semi. We'll have to see if we can get a case with a with a handle on it. Yeah. Just And that might be we might just have to go outside of the Lenovo area to get that, but I'm sure somebody out there has something like that.

Yeah. That would be just a concern. Yeah. And that was, like, probably one of the number one things I heard is was that and and and the connection. And, again, the weather

was the other third one. Yep.

Is you know, I had a random cold weather coming up here in the next actually, today, I think, in the next few days. How how it actually works in the very cold weather. The other flip side

is how it works in the actual hot

weather. Yeah.

So we need to figure out how it's gonna

maintain over over time too. I know like, I I'm not saying we're against it from the PD standpoint. You know? Obviously, knowing me, I'm open up to a

lot of different things.

I'm you know, I'm not just I I like to just know where we're at on things. But I also don't wanna sit there and just jump into something too and then find out we maybe should have jumped into it so quick. Yeah. And then we're having more issues.

The the other upside is is the these devices are deployed right now in in non public safety areas. So we already use these devices in, like, neighborhood services and planning. A lot of our field inspectors, but those folks are in and out of the building. Right? Their laptop does not sit in the vehicle, like, typically overnight. Mhmm. So to that point, you know, find testing it through the extreme weather, and that's why we don't wanna deploy to every squad car. And we wanted to have a fallback if we find that these are not working. The the the upside of a pilot project as we've laid this out is, let's say we deploy this to 20 squad cars. We find out, hey.

Look. When it's 10 degrees out, these things start chugging or they don't work very well. This is the same model laptop we use throughout the city. We would just be able to repurpose those somewhere else. We're not losing anything by doing it it this way, and then we would just shift back to using the g tech devices.

What is the sole purpose of this? Is it cost savings?

Cost savings is significant. So right now, because this is a replacement, so we wouldn't if we were still GTEx, we wouldn't have to replace the mounts and other equipment in the vehicle. We would just be buying a new device. Even with that, it's $700 cheaper per deployment to replace every piece of equipment in the the squad by going, you know, and then going forward, the savings gets to be about 12 to $1,300 cheaper per device we deploy. You know, it's always been a kind of a problem is keeping up on the GTACs.

The the expense has always been harder. So meaning the devices have sat in the vehicles longer, but they get more used than a lot of devices. So I would from my point of view, I'd like to be replacing them on a more rapid turnaround. This allows us to do that. I'd rather be replacing their devices every couple years just because they're in use all day long. And especially in the cool vehicles, those those devices are twenty four seven just going nonstop. You know, replacing them on a more regular basis would be much more affordable if you're on the Lenovo equipment.

Nobody likes to change them, but but we have to make sure that they're working the way we need them to work. So I'm glad that we're taking our time to do it that way. It's not gonna Yeah. It's it's important to save the money, but not if we're at the expense of, you know, in that Exactly. Okay. Do we have a motion to move from $92.47 to the full company?

I have a motion to move forward.

I'll second. All in favor? Aye. K. New or old business, not for final action. I know we were gonna make it a five minute meeting, but I do I did talk to Chris about something because I was I I got a lot of information from him the other day, which was great. I called him because of Susanna's comment, not last meeting, but the meeting before, about the the single family unit inspection program. And it just got me thinking, like, the different committees I'm on, what could IT be doing or is doing or what could we do better? So I called Chris to see if there's something. And as it turns out, it is an adequate system that we do have, and they are working on another system. So he was gonna give us a few bullet points on what's gonna go forward.

Yeah. So we actually started a couple months ago working with Dustin Anderson. We're going to be looking at implementing we it's a capital request in the budget for '26. It's called e p and l. That's enterprise permitting and licensing through Tyler Technologies, which is our current ERP system.

You you guys have heard us talk about it a million times, I'm sure. What that allows us to do is kind of correct the the workflow issues we have right now. So in neighborhood, you know and now e p and l is going to be for all of community development and business license, neighborhood services, but a whole entire kind of area is gonna get their software replaced. But I know the question was mostly focused on neighborhood services. So right now, their inspectors are there's a lot of manual work that is going into what they're doing.

Their processes, are very antiquated. There's a huge amount of they go to the field and they collect certain pieces of information and they come back and then somebody else in the office is actually doing data entry

work. Paper.

Yeah. It's a it's it's a very antiquated way of doing that. They

have a an iPad with them, but it really doesn't do anything. They have to fill it out and they give it to somebody else and somebody else puts it in the system. Yeah. So this is what we're talking about.

Yeah. So it is their their workflows are not good. The the processes around it are extremely cumbersome. Dustin and I have been talking. We're in and this is we've we've seen the demos. We've already sat through. We know this is the product we wanna go with. It's already part it fully integrates into the rest of our current systems. He's kind of estimating for you know, and, obviously, he knows his inspectors better than I do. But, know, off the cuff, he's like he thinks they'll be twice as efficient per individual inspector easily because the way the new system would work is much more modern. It is the inspector takes everything from cradle to grave. Right? Like, they just they're able to work everything. While they're in the field, they're collecting all information digitally. There is no data entry work when you get back to the office.

But it also allows the tracking of notification letters, payments. All of those things are fully integrated to all the rest of the systems, and they're part of a workflow. Flow. So it's not you know, the way the system works now, there's still a lot of, like, people having to know to send a letter out or send that second notice out or make sure we request payment or didn't receive the payment. All of that is cumbersome process.

Right? It never works good.

No. It does not. It does not.

There's definitely a much better process for Right.

So this would be and I think we you said this on the phone that you would they would do the collect what they need and then submit Yeah. Which is how Yes. I always thought it

would But

It would also allow for the things of the the heavy tracking of your rental inspection certificate has expired. It automatically alerts us that, like, hey. We need to renew this in three months. We need to send out those notifications. All of that stuff is just built in. It's just done

by the

system. It's all automated. You know? And what you would think of of any modern system is being done.

It was shocking to hear that it wasn't a modern system me. Like, how how unmodern it was. Yes. He also said that they like, I asked if they can they keep up with, like, entering that stuff? And wait. He's like, no. And that they have every once in a while have people gather together just to input it all. Yeah. So that's through nobody's fault other than the fact that this rental inspection process got kinda dropped in and nobody was expecting it.

Yes. Yeah. So it it's pretty they're overburdened at this point, and the system is not helping to make things more efficient at all.

Is it just gonna happen to process at all either?

Yeah. Now we we know from just past experience, this is gonna be this is not a quick project, though, because it's such it's so comprehensive throughout all of community development. We are looking probably at twelve to eighteen month project. You know, we wanna see it done in twelve, but Mhmm. You know, things if things happen, I wouldn't be shocked to see you go out to eighteen months. But I we're retargeting a twelve month project on

this.

It's mostly building the system so it works the way you want it. Is that what it is?

Yes. Yeah. You know, fortunately, in some areas, you know, like building inspections and stuff like that, a lot of their codes and other thing are already in there. There'll be a conversion from the old system into the new to bring data over and things like that. But, yeah, it is a lot of there's a lot of back end building of the system that has to happen. And there's a lot of discussion. We've already had some of these discussions, and we know the community development's already actively working on this, is building out the future state workflows. It's really easy when you say, well, this is how we always do it. Well, we don't wanna do it that way anymore because that's not efficient. So what they're actively doing right now in preparation is they're creating more modern workflows, how they expect the things to work.

So when we sit down with implementers from Tyler, we know how we want it to work in the future. And they'll they'll also give us some guidance and best practices and how other cities our size have implemented these kind of things.

Exactly. We're not

the It's a great idea. That's great.

No. It's definitely yeah. So if

you Yeah. We we'll actually give you guys check ins

I'd love that.

As we go through

Yeah.

Just make sure we keep you guys up to date.

For that department, especially with

touching Once I heard what it how they were doing it, I'm like Yeah. These poor people. They must be like, I don't wanna quote it for. Anyways, well, I appreciate the update. Thank you. We have no public comments since we have no public, and no no request for closed session. Do we have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you.