Human Resources And Information Technology Committee Receives Update On IT System Assessment – Told One Of The Police Department Fiber Optics Cables Is Not Functioning

The Humana Resources and Information Technology Committee met 04/27/2022. One of the information items on the agenda was an update on the IT infrastructure systems and vulnerability assessment that is currently underway. That assessment was approved in March and the purpose and scope of it was discussed during the 03/07/2022 Human Resources and Information Technology Committee meeting.

Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) mentioned that she was eagerly awaiting this update. I myself was also interested in hearing what would be reported; however, it wasn’t that big of an update, and IT Director Corey Popp mentioned that he hoped he didn’t raise expectations too much with his memo.

He reported to the committee that there were four assessors/engineers involved with the project. There were probably two to three more weeks left on the project at which point they would start working on the written report which Director Popp thought would take another two or three weeks. They were probably six weeks away from a final report being presented.

Director Popp had asked the assessors to let him know right away if they found anything important that might need to be acted on immediately, and they did detect something. There are two fiber optic circuits that run between City Hall and the Police Department. One of those circuits has so many errors on it that it probably isn’t even being used because the number of errors is preventing data from getting through. He said there could be a break in the line or some other type of connection problem.

Director Popp was working on finding a company that could come in and do testing on the line to find out what the problem was and what a repair might look like and cost.

Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if, because there were two lines and only one wasn’t working, things were still functioning.

Director Popp said they were still functioning. He did note that of all the entities in the City of Appleton, they probably had the most technical problems with the Police Department. They chase a lot of ghosts on the Police Department network, so it was perhaps not a total surprise that this issue with the fiber optic cable. Fixing the cable might end up solving a lot of the problems they have been chasing technically at the Police Department.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=922442&GUID=4BCD06EF-B59F-4AAC-BDF4-CF7D8644C62A