The enormous 1,000-plus page document, which also includes San Jose’s then-proposed budget, offers a definitive look at the city systems that have survived well beyond their life expectancies — some by several decades.
According to the document, the city’s deferred maintenance backlog was $45.8 million in 2024.
“Addressing the city’s deferred technology infrastructure need — including upgrading equipment and systems to current industry standards — is essential for fulfilling projects and activities associated with the council’s focus areas, the city manager’s enterprise priorities and city roadmap initiatives — and is especially important to minimize cybersecurity threats the city constantly faces,” the document reads.
Of the 12 systems or projects listed in the CIP (pages 1,008 and 1,009), there are some heavy lifts, such as a more than three-decades-old financial management system, a human capital management (HCM) system that’s two and a half decades past its target refresh date, and a business tax system (BTS) that reached end-of-life in 2014.
For its part, the financial management system has a deferred maintenance cost of $18 million. The city has designated $8.3 million for its replacement. That’s the same amount set aside for the HCM system, which carries a one-time replacement cost of $15 million. The BTS, meanwhile, comes in significantly lower than the previous projects at $4.25 million, with $4.1 million designated for its replacement.
The remaining projects are substantially less daunting from a cost perspective, ranging from $2.9 million to $22,000. They include:
- Windows 10 will be replaced across 2,521 devices with a one-time cost of $2.9 million. The operating system will need to be updated again in five years. The virtual desktop infrastructure is also due for replacement as of October 2024 at a cost of $240,000.
- The city’s Perimeter security firewall has a replacement cost of $1 million. No details were included about the age or status of this system.
- The 1,287 FirstNet phones purchased in 2021 must be replaced at a cost of $929,000. Other phones are approaching their replacement date, bringing the deferred maintenance total to $1.1 million.
- Oracle Database Appliances (ODA) are reaching replacement age in 2025-26, and carry a $500,000 deferred maintenance cost.
- Replacement of desk phones will cost around $375,000.
Deep Dive Resources
2025-2027 Proposed Biennial Capital Budget & 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Program
2025-2026 City Manager’s Budget Request & 2026-2030 Five-Year Forecast and Revenue Projections
