SJC to study cybersecurity further

COLDSPRING — After finding the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office was being billed on a contract that the Commissioners Court did not approve, the new Sheriff attempted to get some sort of cybersecurity in place so as not to lose its connection to national resources.

At the Wednesday meeting of the San Jacinto County Commissioners Court, Chief Deputy Stan Jolly said he compiled bids from area firms for IT security, but he also said that if the county cannot get the proper security, they will lose their National Crime Information Center Division of Criminal Information capabilities.

County Judge Fritz Faulkner said the issue wasn’t with security, but that a contract with Quantum Communications was signed illegally.

He also said that in his opinion, the Sheriff’s Office was being overcharged, since the current bill was for work on 77 computers and the county could account for only a portion of that.

“Let me explain our perspective. We didn’t have $140,000 in computers; they (the previous Sheriff’s administration) went rogue and signed a contract with some bunch, a contract that was not approved by the court,” Faulkner said. “They expect us to figure out how to pay for it. Your assuming the court intends to keep paying $140,000 a year for computer techs.”

Jolly said he understood and got the three bids that were requested; the bill of $13,000 from Quantum was for the current systems, but when the county is outfitted from the Lone Star Grant, there could be upwards of 80 computers being used by the office, including those in patrol vehicles as well.

Jolly pointed out that prior to hiring Quantum, the Sheriff’s Office servers were hacked.

However, Commissioner Donny Marrs asked that instead of spending so much money for an outside firm, why not hire another IT person for the county?

Discussion then turned to what the actual needs of the office would be, so the court voted to pay the outstanding invoices to Quantum, and then directed the Sheriff’s Office to ascertain exactly its needs and whether an outside firm or an internal IT candidate would suffice.

In other business, the court:

• approved Incident Response Services Constangy IDX for cybersecurity;
• approved an agreement with the Emergency Services District and a rental contract for rental on a tower for use of the tower for communications equipment;
• approved adding two county employees to the Local Government Systems judicial software;
• approved selling tax trust properties;
• approved the length of Bill Hales Road that is county-maintained at 2.4 miles;
• approved a lot split for Charles Eldridge at 5000 FM 945 North;
• approved rehiring Makenzy Hahn as a dispatcher for the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office;
• approved the purchase of items to outfit vehicles for the Sheriff’s Office from Dana Safety Supply Inc.;
• approved joining the The Interlocal Purchasing Systems purchasing cooperative;
• approved the purchase of a new phone system for several county departments;
• approved waiving permit fees for FEMA temporary housing;
• approved a bid for a roll-off sanitation truck for $212,000, to be paid for through financing;
• approved the sale of fireworks for Texas Independence Day from Feb. 25 to March 2;
• approved a variance for property at 8001 and 8003 FM 224 for Tina and Brian Webb;
• approved broken items as salvage;
• approved the donation of road material for Precinct 1 Road and Bridge Department;
• set April 11 for Precincts 1 and 3 and April 12 for Precincts 2 and 4 for tire recycling event;
• approved the resignation of Darell Boeske as Emergency Services District No. 2 commissioner, and appointed Marie Murphy to fill the position; and
• approved paying for a load of uncontracted limestone base, at a price of $84,000, from the road maintenance materials budget for Precinct 1, with Faulkner voting against the measure.