NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Cities throughout Middle Tennessee are looking to use more technology, but cost is a barrier for many.
The Tennessean reports spending on technology varies widely from community to community, depending on many factors including the expectations and demographics of residents.
In Franklin, the seat of the state’s richest county, city officials began investing heavily in technology more than a decade ago. It has an information technology department with more than 12 workers, fiber-optic cables that connect city buildings and virtual servers.
“Our customers have an expectation of us,” said Eric Stuckey, city administrator for Franklin. “They want us to be more like (Amazon) than the stereotype of the motor vehicle department.”
Meanwhile, the city of Spring Hill in southern Williamson County has yet to hire a full-time IT worker.
City Administrator Victor Lay says the city spends about $85,000 on IT functions, but he thinks that number will have to be adjusted to keep up with technological demands.
One thing the city is working on is a new website, which will be debuted in about six months.
“We want a (web) site so that any transaction they can do by coming in the door, we want them to be able to do that online,” Lay said. “We want to develop a website that is very customer service oriented.”
Budgets for technology vary in different municipalities. While Franklin budgeted $2.65 million for its IT department in the most recent fiscal year, the city of Brentwood set aside $1 million.
IT directors in Midstate cities including Mount Juliet, Lebanon and Gallatin say they’d like to do more, but funding is an uphill battle.
Matt Foley, an information technology technician for the city of Gallatin, says investment in technology seems to have leveled off after the recent launch of a new website.
In Mount Juliet, the city’s website carries live meetings and it plans to outfit code inspectors with tablets that will allow them to upload inspection results remotely.
Rutherford County IT director Brian Robertson said virtual servers used there since 2008 give different departments flexibility in making technological changes.
“Just (recently), I was speaking with our emergency management agency and they let me know that they would like to have a server that allows them to talk to their monitoring equipment at their radio base station,” Robertson said. “Virtual server technology allowed me to say, ‘Sure, we can have your server up this afternoon if you like,’ instead of, ‘Well, let me check the budget and our server rack space and I’ll get back to you later.’ “