Cybersecurity, Laptop Replacements on Town Budget

A city of some 56,000 residents has a list of technology to fund across various departments over this and the coming years. These items can be found in the budget documentation, and some projects may be underway.

Little Elm, near Dallas, has a fire station under construction with a total cost estimate of $6.5 million, noted on its FY 2022-23 budget highlights.

The city has a total budget of $125.7 million with a city staff including three IT Department contacts and a GIS manager listed online.

The budget for the IT Department is listed at $2.3 million, and the library is listed at $706,728. The IT budget includes several items in the planning stages such as:

• Access control upgrades at $281,000
• Arctic Wolf Security at $55,000 or more year over year
• Cybersecurity assessments in 2023 and 2025 for $68,000
• Rugged laptop replacement at $83,000 this year and again in 2026
• WatchGaurd Cloud Storage at $85,995 year over year
• Various camera upgrades at more than $140,000 in total

Additional purchases through the city will include equipment refreshment and enhancing livestreamed meetings and recordings under a “PEG Fund” used for public access television.

The city’s procurement practices are listed on its website.