JEFFERSON — Eliminating the county’s Information Technology Services Department will save $158,463 in the first year, according to a spreadsheet provided by Commissioner Daniel Claypool.
The savings are spread over several accounts, including the general fund.
Claypool said the Information Technology (IT) Services Department, abolished last week, cost the county nearly $300,000 annually, including for health care, retirement, workers compensation and employees’ Medicare benefits. He did not calculate costs of hardware, software or other supplies, but he expects no change to those costs under the new arrangement.
Last week, the county’s Data Board contracted with Suite 224 of Conneaut to provide IT services during 2010 for $120,000. That is just the start of the savings, however.
Claypool said shifting Janet Boland, formerly 911 coordinator/ software specialist, onto the Emergency Management Agency’s budget, will use a portion of the $56,442 in grant funding for a planner/ trainer to fund some of Boland’s new job: 911 coordinator/ planner-trainer. Some of the work associated with the position, which grant sources require the county to fill, will be shared between the director and his deputy so that Boland has more time for 911 coordinator tasks.
The details of that arrangement still are being worked out, but Claypool said the new plan should save the 911 fund a portion of not only Boland’s salary and benefits, previously paid totally from 911 money, but also half of the former IT director’s salary. Collectively, that amounts to $75,000 annually. Under the new plan, it drops to $33,135. EMA will have to fund 50 percent, or about $24,000, of the planner-trainer position.
A budget for the Data Board still is being developed, but Claypool said it will include one full-time position, which is expected to cost the county about $56,000 annually. The position, a desktop-support person, was previously under the auditor’s budget.
Another cost saving/ efficiency will be realized by moving the coroner’s office from rented space on State Road, Ashtabula Township, to the office formerly occupied by IT services, which should save the county about $8,000 this year, after moving expenses.
Claypool said commissioners are looking at every aspect of county government and every scenario in which money can be saved as the county faces a projected shortfall of $3 million, or more, in 2010.
He said the IT department was abolished for purely financial reasons.
“It was for no reason other than financial,” he said. “It was just a way to save money, and it had nothing to do with anybody or the job they were doing. All of them worked for me, and they were very honorable people.”
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