Manager's Report for the July 9, 2019 Town Council Meeting
Proposed Upcoming Town Council Meeting Schedule
July 9th – 6:30 PM Budget Workshop, CRA Board Meeting, Regular Town Council Meeting
August 13th – 6:30 PM Regular Town Council Meeting
September 10th – 6:30 PM Budget Public Hearing, CRA Board Meeting, Regular Town Council Meeting
September 24th – 6:30 PM Budget Public Hearing, Regular Town Council Meeting
Upcoming Events
July 19th – 5:30 PM Food Truck Invasion
August 2nd – 7:00 PM Last Days of Summer Movie Night, How to Train Your Dragon 3
August 16th – 5:30 PM Food Truck Invasion
September 14th – 8:00 AM Coastal Clean Up
September 20th – 5:30 PM Food Truck Invasion
Fiscal Year 2019/2020 DRAFT Budget
Staff is presenting the DRAFT FY2019/2020 budget on July 9th. The proposed budget is 4% less than last year’s budget. A lot of careful analysis and consideration went into the preparation of this budget. While the Town’s financial situation is good, we are continually trying to balance the needs and wants of the various Departments.
- The Police Department is now 45% of the Town’s Budget. Turn over within the PD is higher than we would like and our defined contribution pension program is often the stated reason for leaving. Considerable investment has been made and is continuing in this budget year for equipment and software to support PD activities. Implementation is continuing with the Records Management System shared with Palm Springs. We are addressing the cybersecurity and reliability issues of this software as we implement the system and train staff in its use.
- Additional investment is being made in our financial software to support new cashiering methods.
- Investment is being made in our IT infrastructure as new and more efficient business practices are being implemented. New cybersecurity threats are being identified and our IT Consultants are changing hardware, software, and procedures to better protect us.
- We are adding an additional staff person in Utilities to free up senior staff to implement a thorough work order/asset management program which we expect will include an enhanced GIS capability. It’s also time to update our 2010/2011 Rate Study. We have not had a Town initiated rate increase since 2010. Further, our Financial Advisor would like a revised and updated 10-year Capital Improvement Plan for Utilities. The $300,000 legislative appropriation for Septic to Sewer Design has been added to the Utilities Professional Services line item in the Budget. The money will be used for the detailed survey needed for a sewer system design.
- CRA expenditures include an allowance for our Financial Advisor to help us maximize our growth potential while shielding us from possible legislation that could change our CRA operating abilities.
- Finally, our road repaving program is moving forward on streets where possible sewer construction won’t damage new roads. The Pine Tree Bridge Pre-Design is complete, the Bridge is expected to cost in excess of $850,000 and will disrupt traffic for about 6 months.
Cybersecurity Threats and Actions
You’ve read a lot recently on ransomware attacks. Most professionals believe we are under attack continuously. Our IT Consultants tell us an attack is inevitable. The damage inflicted can be contained and managed with appropriate procedures, structure, and hardware. Our network is built on the Principles of Least Privilege (PoLP) meaning you only get access to areas you need access to. We have limited staff access to all of the server areas helping ensure an accidental action by a staff member won’t inadvertently spread the infection to critical data. At the same time, we are installing and upgrading our server processors, memory, and storage to allow new software applications that will add operational efficiencies in both general government and utilities. In addition, we are building a backup server to distribute our data to two locations with each location having its separate security protocols.
