Resolution for IT ‘advisory board’ to got to Commission
Anderson County’s plans to establish “a centralized and uniform approach” for its information technology department is evolving as county officials continue to find ways to accommodate the needs of its newest department.
The needs for more office space, more employees, and an advisory board to assist the IT department with policy monitoring and budget oversight were some of the topics commissioners took up at their commission meeting on April 17.
At the April meeting, commissioners unanimously passed a resolution that officially recognized and put into effect the Anderson County Office of Technology, the position of IT Director, and an IT advisory board.
Commissioners heard from County Circuit Court Clerk William Jones, who presented to them for their consideration the resolution requesting that officials create an IT advisory committee to assist the IT department in its transitioning to a centralized approach with the IT services it offers to county government departments countywide.
“An IT committee needs to be here to protect the IT department that you all established,” said Jones, a strong proponent of the county’s newest department.
“I think this committee should be made up of elected officials,” he said.
Jones proposed to commissioners two options suggesting how the IT advisory board could be structured.
The first option — option A — proposed that voting members on the IT advisory board include the county mayor, county clerk, circuit court clerk, highway superintendent, assessor of property, register of deeds, trustee, clerk and master, one member of the county commission, and the law director, with the law director as a non voting ex officio.
The second option — option B — proposed having the same voting members on the board as option A, but added two non-elected members to the board: Anderson County Finance Director Natalie Erb and Anderson County Human Resource Director Russell Bearden.
The resolution specified that the IT advisory board would monitor the IT office and the IT director “for the purpose of providing assistance when needed, evaluation concerns, budget oversight and monitoring for policy compliance purposes.”
The resolution further stated that the IT director would be required to meet with the advisory board from time to time to update and notify board members of IT related issues in county government and said the advisory board would also determine the times the director would need to meet with the IT field to discuss IT matters.
Anderson County Commissioner Myron Iwanski (Dist. 8) made the motion that commissioners approve resolution option B because it included the finance and the human resources directors on the committee.
Iwanski said the committee needed to be “an independent committee,” and asserted it was important to have input from Erb and Bearden on the committee.
“Their involvement [Erb and Bearden] up to this point has been very commendable in getting it [the IT department] to where it’s at,” said Iwanski.
