[Solano County] Grand jury casts a critical eye on county government’s computer, networking systems

Recent report indicates IT department has a disaster recovery plan in place but ‘needs some improvement’

A recently released Solano County grand jury report found that the Department of Information Technology’s senior staffers are knowledgeable about industry standards, equipment and infrastructure and have adequate policies in place to manage the county’s computer and networking infrastructure but their disaster recovery plan admittedly needs “some improvement,” specifically in case of a power outage, while other departmental areas “have not been explicitly and thoroughly outlined and tested and are under review.”

Issued Tuesday by the citizens group, the report, “County System Inventory, Security, Backup and Recovery,” issued three findings and recommendations regarding the county’s Enterprise System Catalog; the Assessment and Taxation System Project; and System and Data Recovery.

Calling technology an “essential tool” for effective government operations, jury members noted the IT department, headed by Tim Flanagan, who oversees a $26 million 2019-20 budget, updated its Enterprise System Catalog — a software application or computer systems that collects, stores, exchanges and analyzes information collected about the public — and posted it to the county website, in accord with state law, on Dec. 21 after a lag of several years.

Grand jurors recommended that annual review procedures need to be amended with the requirement to post the catalog to the county website, www.solanocounty.com.

In its finding about the county Assessment and Taxation System Project, the grand jury report indicated it replaced the county’s Integrated Property System.

“The project has a $10 million reserve set aside and presents significant risk and expense to the County,” jury members found.

In greater detail, they reported that the system “has been highlighted as a critically important system, and thus essentially ‘too big to fail.’ ” Flanagan and IT staffers provided the grand jury with a copy of the current project, defining its 13 phases and timelines, with a completion date of July 31, 2023.

Jurors recommended that the project manager monitor any changes in anticipated staffing needs and to provide regular status reports to the Board of Supervisors and stakeholder departments.

Of System and Data Recovery, jurors noted “at the time of this report,” the department’s disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which outline processes, procedures and resources, was incomplete. Department leaders admitted “improvement was needed in this area” but were addressing the issue. However, the report summary indicated “an aspect of the plan pertaining to power outage recovery is robust and has been tested.”

In the more detailed section of the report, jurors found that a business continuity plan “would include components outside DoIT and require coordination with other County business units and departments.”

Additionally, it would require the use of a “testing plan, preferably at least annual” to make sure “critical personnel understand their role and how to perform their duties,” in accord with the plan.

Jurors recommended that Flanagan and his senior staff “continue to thoroughly review and update” plans to make sure they are up-to-date and routinely tested.

If or when a major disaster in the vicinity of the county’s data centers cause them to be inaccessible, the plan “will be an essential tool” in the effective operation of Solano County government, jurors concluded.

Vacaville Reporter
By Richard Bammer bammer@thereporter.com|
April 30, 2020