Laura Glesby Photo
Michael Gormany faces Alders Anna Festa, Ron Hurt, and Adam Marchand at Thursday night's budget hearing.
City Hall plans to grow and restructure its technology department to focus more on fending off cyber-attacks and adapting to an increasingly online world.
City Budget Director Michael Gormany offered this explanation to alders who questioned his request for new technology positions in the mayor’s 2022 – 2023 Fiscal Year budget proposal.
The questions arose at the Board of Alders Finance Committee’s first budget hearing of the year, which took place in person at City Hall Thursday.
Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter asked Gormany about the mayor’s plans to add a chief technology officer position. How would that officer interact with the existing Information and technology director? Winter asked.
The chief technology officer would oversee the IT director, Gormany replied.
Gormany pointed to the rising need for virtual platforms due to Covid-19 and the cyber-threats that have targeted police departments, public schools, and other municipal agencies in other cities. Hackers attacked New Haven’s own school system in 2019. Another cyberattack targeted the Hamden Board of Ed in 2020.
“In this day and age… with ransomware, malware, and attacks, we need someone to oversee” the overall direction of the city’s technological systems, Gormany argued.
Laura Glesby Photo
Tech testimony: Michael Gormany testifies at budget hearing.
Gormany added that the city’s IT department, which serves corners of government ranging from the school system to public works to the livable city initiative, is already stretched thin. “We’re focusing on the day to day,” he said of the IT department’s current work.
Does the city need a new supervisor position in order to bolster cyber security? asked Westville Alder Adam Marchand. The chief technology officer would earn a salary of $160,000 (half of which would be paid from the Board of Education’s budget), while the existing Information and Technology director would continue making $122,832 per year.
“Why not hire more boots on the ground, as opposed to a highly paid executive position?” Marchand asked.
The new position would be in charge of “planning and strategic vision,” answered Gormany. “Looking at what IT does now, we’re missing an opportunity in how we can transform City Government’s use of IT.”
The new technology position is one of 25 new hires the mayor has proposed in his 2022 – 2023 budget.
i dont think the alders remember that their meetings were zoom bombed many times