Grant County Commission holds work session 031224 part 4

[Editor's Note: This is the fourth of a series of articles on the Grant County Commission work session on March 12, 2024. It continues the county reports.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The next report at the Grant County Commission work session on March 12, 2024 came from Fiscal Services Director Linda Vasquez. She noted the department has issued three RFPs (request for proposal), with the first for the comprehensive plan consultant, which was due March 22, 2024; the second for the brownfields cleanup project for the old jail, due on April 10, 2024; and the last for architectural services, due April 2, 2024.

Future projects include rebids for the hazard mitigation plan update, the Pinos Altos Volunteer Fire Department Swan Street station construction, and the Bataan Memorial Park walking path.

She said the department staff would be taking classes for the ERP Pro, the replacement for Encode, through Tyler University in March and April.

Vasquez noted that Accounting Specialist Carolyn Castillo has received her CPO (?) certification, giving the department two certified individuals.

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards said she was excited to see that a bid had gone out for a comprehensive plan consult.

Internet Technology Director Adam Baca presented the next report. He said the department was working on quotes for the computer lab at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center. "We plan to put in 13 computers and a printer. When the lab is built it will be a great community resource."

He and his staff have been going through training with Securin, which is a cybersecurity program in Albuquerque. "It is for attack service management, which gives us the attacker's perspective from the outside in. It's a great example of how the state is syncing up with counties to allow us to have multiple eyes on our network. I know that I and my team have been working to secure our network to the best of our abilities, but this is an additional security measure. Not only can we log into the program and see the vulnerabilities, but the state also can do so. It allows us to prevent any 'open doors,' if you will, so we can ensure greater security on our attack surface management."

He said he and the clerk have been reviewing state and local cybersecurity grant programs. "We can take advantage of some state funding to beef up the infrastructure. We can work on securing our elections. I plan to fill out the form and apply for it. It will allow us to create some redundancy on some critical pieces of equipment, which we have on our network. It will be a safeguard for our electronic structure to allow a standby if one goes out. We are also working on a formalized process for public record requests, in particular IPRA (inspect public records request). This will allow better records management. We may eventually be able to provide a portal on the website."

For future projects, Baca said he continues to work on the server structure to allow cloud migration to Tyler Eagle services. "Once we're in the cloud, it will be easier to update operating systems to keep them as current as possible. "

He participated in part of the CAD (computer-assisted dispatch) training at the Dispatch Authority, in order to get a better idea of how the CAD will work."I also met with our CivicPlus account rep to learn more about how the program manages our system. I also talked about the IPRA because they offer a software for that solution."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked who is the network administrator for the CAD system. "Are you?"

Baca said he went in to the training to learn, but "Dispatch is the administrator. We allow the sheriff's office to remotely connect into the CAD system, even when they are out on patrol."

Edwards asked what Baca envisioned for the IPRA portal.

Baca said he would like to see the public be able to submit IPRA requests, which will then route to the appropriate office, so they can start the process of putting the information together. He said with the formalization of the process, it would immediately give a time frame, so they know how long they have and it will allow them to properly prepare the documentation, as some of it requires redacting of personal information, which the formalization will have tools to do.

Edwards said it sounds like a time saver for county staff. "I understand it generally takes an incredible amount of time to reply to IPRA requests."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce asked if it would go through the county manager first.

County Manager Charlene Webb said: "Not necessarily. Each department has their own records custodian. I can review them, but they go first directly to the pertinent department. This gives us an opportunity to handle the request correctly and efficiently. It will give us a whole other opportunity to make sure we are in compliance, as well as handling them in a timely fashion."

Baca said it will almost certainly have an administrative component that will allow management to know about the submissions and how they are being handled. It will provide consistency across departments.

The next article will continue with county reports.

To read the previous articles, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/83233-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-031224-part-1 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/83277-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-031224-part-2  ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/83348-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-031224-part-3