PORTSMOUTH — If you’ve been frustrated with the Town of Portsmouth’s website, you’re not alone. However, help is on the way if the Town Council ends up hiring a full-time …
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PORTSMOUTH — If you’ve been frustrated with the Town of Portsmouth’s website, you’re not alone. However, help is on the way if the Town Council ends up hiring a full-time information technology (IT) professional.
In consecutive nights last week, the Town Council pored over Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr.’s proposed $69.15 million budget for fiscal year 2022. The total budget increase is 2.85 percent, which stays within the state-mandated 4-percent increase on new spending. The spending plan calls for a tax rate of about $15.31, a 1.57 percent increase over the current rate.
The tax rate increase will be slightly higher — about 1.7 percent — should the council create the position of an IT manager, which would add more than $100,000 onto the spending plan.
The new position was discussed at the tail end of the budget presentation last Wednesday, April 28. The council approved all other sections of the budget, and will consider including the position when it votes to provisionally approve the entire spending plan Monday night, May 10. The council will hold a public hearing on June 9, and formally adopt a budget on June 28.
At the April 28 workshop, the council heard support for adding the position from three members of the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC): Steve Johnson, chairman; Ted Pietz, vice-chairman; and Joe Forgione. They said the time for Portsmouth to hire an IT manager is long past due.
“Funding an IT professional staff position can more than pay for itself in greater efficiencies and by avoiding unnecessary expenditures,” the PEDC stated in a letter to the council.
The committee pointed out that East Greenwich has two staff members supporting information technology, Newport has a full IT department, and Middletown’s IT director says the town runs “lean and efficient” with its two IT staff members.
An IT professional, the PEDC argued, could serve many functions:
• Streamline electronic payment processing services, such as allowing taxpayers to pay property taxes, buy transfer station stickers, register for recreation department programs and more through the town’s website. In addition, the IT manager could oversee the installment of payment kiosks in Town Hall.
• Improve the town’s website to make it easier to navigate and more functional.
• Continue to migrate town IT functions to cloud-hosting solutions in lieu of purchasing computer hardware.
• Finalize a “hybrid” solution for town meetings.
• Empower town staff with collaboration tools and communication channels.
• Review the town’s current IT security posture as well as system restoration planning to minimize the chances of devastating ransomware attacks.
Speaking to the council, Mr. Forgione said a full-time professional IT person would also help “attract the right kind of tax-paying businesses” to Portsmouth, while Mr. Johnson said the job would be “more of an investment than a cost.”
Keeping costs down
Mr. Rainer said hiring a full-time IT person — he refers to the job as an “information service manager” — was originally going to be included in his proposed budget, but he was concerned about keeping the tax rate increase under the projected inflation rate.
“In all honesty we did intend to propose an IT manager, but in January we were still in a situation where we had to cut a significant amount from the proposed budget and that was one of the things left on the table,” he said.
However, since then the projected inflation rate has increased to more than 2 percent, and he was able to keep other budget expenses in line.
“We came in better than I had expected, so it could be afforded,” Mr. Rainer.
As to how to pay for the new position, council member Daniela Abbott made a motion to move $69,000 from the $369,000 that had already been added to the capital reserve fund to the IT budget. Mr. Rainer said that will provide enough funding for a full-time IT manager, plus keeping a contractor on board long enough for the turnover.
The council voted 7-0 to approve the motion.