- Fiscal Court approved a reorganization creating two assistant director positions within the county’s Information Systems Department.
- Public safety technology staff will remain dedicated to 911 dispatch operations but will now report to the county’s IT department.
- County officials said the changes will improve technology planning and efficiency ahead of the move to the new Emergency Management and Public Safety Communications Center.
As Boone County prepares to relocate its emergency management operations to its brand-new facility, the fiscal court is reorganizing its Information Systems Department.
During last week’s Boone County Fiscal Court meeting, the legislative body approved a resolution to reorganize the department, establishing two new positions. Boone County Administrator Matthew Webster said the transition to the new facility prompted a broad review of dispatch operations
In March, Boone County broke ground on its new Emergency Management and Public Safety Communications Center. The new 20,000-square-foot facility will be located at the intersection of Conrad Land and Bullittsville Road, across from the Boone County Jail and the Boone County Sheriff’s Department.
The facility, currently under construction, will bring Boone County’s Emergency Management Department and Public Safety Communications Center together under one roof, creating an all-encompassing public safety headquarters.
“As part of the work that the county has been doing with our CAD in the new dispatch emergency management building, it’s really provided an opportunity to take a deep dive into our PSCC operations, as we’re moving buildings and reorganizing how things work to make sure that if there are ways to gain efficiencies or better serve the public at a better value to the taxpayer, that we make those adjustments,” Webster said.
Currently, two technology employees at the Public Safety Communications Center report directly to department director Sherri Nipper, whose expertise is in emergency communications rather than IT. Webster said that after county staff consulted with Nipper and IT director Jason Gamble, they concluded that those employees would be better suited under the supervision of the county’s Information Services department.
“We have found that there are a lot of things up there that could run a lot more efficiently with a little more direction from an information services or information technology point of view,” Webster said.
To better align the roles, Webster proposed a reorganization of the technology operations, consolidating them under a single department. Boone County will create two new assistant director positions that report directly to Gamble: one overseeing county technology and the other overseeing public safety technology.
Employees assigned to the Public Safety Communications Center would continue working full-time on supporting county-wide dispatch operations, but they would receive direct oversight from an IT professional.
Webster explained that he felt the move would improve long-term planning and task coordination for jobs such as ensuring the department’s server and firewall replacement schedules are aligned with the rest of the county’s in-house infrastructure.
“We think this is a good move that will make information services, holistically, more efficient and work a little bit better, and again, I think we kind of are putting people in the right seats on the bus to best serve the departments in the county,” Webster said.
Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore said he agreed with Webster, noting that the reorganization aligns with the emergency management department’s upcoming relocation.
“I think also with the new building under construction, with dispatch management moving to Burlington, also it makes sense that they are aligned as well,” Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore said.
