Dallas County commissioners have approved a 3-year contract up to $12 million for a computer management services to handle day to day business, including payroll.
Though the contract was approved at Tuesday's commissioners court meeting, there was much discussion — and some disagreement — about whether it’s wise to spend so much money for an IT-related contract before commissioners have seen results from a computer systems audit.
County budget officer Ronica Watkins explained that the contract is related to business operation computer services, while Gartner, a company hired in August to study the county's computer systems, looked at more technical computer issues.
Garcia voted to approve the contract, but expressed concern about the overall county IT situation, regardless of department or use.
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins had anticipated important conversation and offered to delay approval and call a special meeting later.
The county currently has no IT director, payroll problems aren’t fully corrected and Commissioner Andy Sommerman questioned how the contract would be funded.
The county also renewed its more than $600,000 cyber security insurance and approved more than $100,000 to Gartner for new projects technology support.
Commissioners were able to review some results of the IT audit in closed session. The full report will be presented to the IT governance committee Dec. 12.
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