Commissioners debate costs, logistics of proposed HCSO software upgrades

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels debated a proposal to convert the Highland County Sheriff’s Office’s software system into the cloud during their Wednesday, May 14 meeting.

Commissioners, along with Highland County Sheriff Randy Sanders and county 911 coordinator Scott Miller, met with CentralSquare’s Kimberly Willis and Brian Fluegeman in person and Lane Floyd, Tucker Halverson, Randy McCloskey, Dennis Nepini and Bill Screen via video conference. The county currently contracts with CentralSquare for their 911 system.

As discussed, the proposal would convert the Sheriff’s Office’s current system from being physically housed at the Justice Center to being instead hosted virtually through the cloud, aka an online system. Willis, an account manager, discussed the possible contract terms, while the other representatives fielded other questions about the proposal.

The issue of primary focus for commissioners was the cost, including whether it was of better value than upgrading the current hardware system at the justice center and whether the sheriff’s office, or the county, could cover the costs in this year’s budget. No decisions were made, as commissioners ultimately asked the group to return the following week for further discussion.

In response to a question from Roades, Miller said that the HCSO’s “servers are at their five-year replacement” where they are required to upgrade both their 911 and Computer-Aided Dispatch [CAD] systems.

According to Daniels, “the total quote is for $137,364.18,” and Willis said that includes “the entire annual recurring cost as well as what they're currently paying.

“It’s $58,000 over and above what they’re currently paying,” Willis said. “What covers in this quote is everything that they currently have with CentralSquare, their jail management software system, their records management software system and their CAD system.

“Right now they have a room with servers in there, very expensive to maintain, and we're going to take all of that and put it in the cloud, and host it in the cloud. All of their servers, all of their software currently that they have on premises, will be hosted into the cloud, which enhances security and allows them to work remotely if need be. Any kind of natural disaster or flooding or anything to that effect wouldn't have an effect on them, on their operations.”

Miller added that the server room at the Justice Center is “where all the water lines are also coming into,” so a “benefit with the cloud is we wouldn't have to worry about that equipment getting damaged if the pipes burst back in that room.”

Another benefit, according to Willis, is that using the cloud will eliminate the need for a “hardware refresh every five to seven years.

“It's just a much better future plan for the county, but it doesn't just do that,” she said. “It gives it so much more security. It eases up the IT department, so IT has much more flexibility and time to do other things besides deal with the hardware. It makes deployments much easier.”

Willis continued that software upgrades are faster and easier with less “downtime” using the cloud, while a network redundancy ensures constant access to the system. McCloskey said that there is a “true disaster recovery opportunity” with this system if there is “any kind of natural disaster.

“If it's on [premises], you would lose all of that,” he said. “If it's in the cloud, you maintain access to all of your systems, all of the time.”

Willis said the proposed contract includes Centerline AI as a free promotion — a $22,000 annual value — “contingent if we get this done by June 30.” According to the CentralSquare website, this is “an AI-powered platform that helps you transcribe body-cam footage and generate narratives in minutes, not hours.”

“It’s going to put you guys on the road map, in my opinion, because Highland County will be one of my first agencies in Ohio to implement this, as well as move to the cloud,” Willis said.

Britton asked how the county is paying for the current system. Commission clerk Ashleigh Willey advised that is partly paid out of the 911 fund ($16,792), with the rest ($57,580) covered by the county’s general fund, confirming the $74,372.87 cost is “not going through” the sheriff’s budget.

In response to additional funding questions from Daniels, Willis explained that the contract includes a one-time “cost for services to move everything over,”  while the annual cost moving forward would be approximately $117,167.58.

“So we’ve got to come up with another $58,000,” Britton said.

“Well, the sheriff does,” Daniels said.

Sanders responded that the commissioners need to determine the length of the contract if they decide to approve it.

“We've always been five years,” Miller said. “We can stretch this out and not have to do this every five years and come up with this lump sum redo every time. We can get this thing set to go out longer, and it'll save money in the long run.”

Willis agreed that “we still have more work to do” to finalize the terms of the contract if commissioners choose to move forward.

Daniels asked the HCSO how the cost of moving systems to the cloud compared to the cost of upgrading their existing servers and remaining with hardware on site.

“I asked that question,” Sanders said. “I was told for what we what we need, the cheapest ones would be around eight to 10 grand [each].”

Miller added that they would need about three servers.

“You're looking at somewhere between $30 [thousand] and $40,000 to upgrade the hardware that you've got,” Daniels said. “Now, that lasts for five years, but still.

“I guess, from my standpoint, I see no reason that you guys can't continue these conversations and come back to us with a final number. I mean, again, have you got money in your budget to do this increase?”

“No,” Sanders said.

“All right,” Daniels said. “So now then that comes back to us to find additional funding to implement this. I mean, if we’re looking at this, we have to start making a funding choice.”

Daniels added that as the HCSO works on finalizing a proposed contract, the number of additional funding “shouldn’t go up” from the $58,000 quote.

However, going back to Daniels’ question of the cost for a hardware upgrade, Britton said he wanted to “see a comparison between replacing equipment …versus this” new proposal.

“I can and I will,” Willis said. “I really don't want to get stuck on the cost of the equipment, because the cost of not moving to the cloud is much more hurtful than the cost of the hardware. There's just so much involved in moving to the cloud, not just the ransomware, not just the security, but also the ease of that it's going to set up on the officers, the IT department. There's so much more involved than just the hardware costs.

“I think the community will benefit from it, as well as the agency and you guys politically. It's going to be a fantastic move.”

Roades said he agreed with Britton that they need to compare “apples to apples” before making a final decision, while Daniels said he wanted the HCSO to see if there were “additional funds that you can put in toward this” implementation fee.

“We are running an offer or a promotion through the end of June in which we can do a step-up program,” McCloskey said. “Your initial cost will be smaller, and then it just steps up over five years. Basically, we're financing the cost to connect to AWS [Amazon Web Services] and things like that, because we understand that you may not have these dollars in budget. We'll show you what that will look like as well, and you can see if that works for your agency.”

Daniels also asked how “quickly” the cloud conversion could occur if they do agree to that option. McCloskey said there are several factors that affect the timeline, but it could be completed in a matter of months with almost no “downtime” without the servers.

“We just did Fulton County, Georgia, which is the Atlanta area, and they were down for three minutes to move to the cloud,” McCloskey said. “It’s a very short process, and it's just a matter of the buy-in from the agency and how long it takes to get the testing done.”

Daniels again asked the HCSO to “take a look at your budgets.

“You want it, you need it, you pay for it,” he said.

“We can come up with some money,” Sanders said. “That's not an issue this year, but that's going to kill us down the road, unless something changes.”

“I don't want to do this now, but I'm going to,” Daniels said. “Every year we end up reaching out to you guys, and you set a budget for the coming year. This is not included in your budget for this year. This is extra. This is on top of it.

“You're asking us to do this, this year, now, rather than wait till next year, when you've had the opportunity to budget that in, and we've had the opportunity to look at the county as a whole and take a look at where we stand. I'm not so concerned with the idea that we're paying more for what might be an upgrade. It's that we're paying more for an upgrade now that's not scheduled in our total spending plan for the year, and that's where I'm coming with this from.

“I mean, is this probably a better deal?” Daniels continued. “Probably. All right, did we count on this last January? No, and recognizing that you weren't here last January — that you're new — we're making some allowances, but once again, we've got to go, how's this fit into the whole grand scheme of things? And we want to be helpful, we want to make sure that we're providing what our officers need, but also, we're still going to have to come up with some money here that really wasn't planned at the beginning of the year, so just understand our position.”

The conversation ended with commissioners inviting the group to return for the May 21 meeting for further discussions, including on 911 upgrades, which they did not delve into Wednesday. Miller said they have a separate proposal to upgrade their 911 system and “go to the cloud” as well, but this would be “all paid for out of the wireless fund.”        

In other discussion:

• Highland County Treasurer Vickie Warnock conducted an investment advisory committee meeting, sharing figures from the first quarter of 2025.

Totals as of the month of March presented by Warnock included:

—STAR Ohio, $6,997,590.74 balance and 4.46-percent interest rate;

—STAR Plus, $3,492,907.20 balance and 3.02-percent interest rate;

—Fifth Third (CDs): $11,259,524.05 balance and 3.21-percent average interest rate;

—Checking account: $10,304,000.98 current balance and 4.16-percent interest rate; and

—ICS account: $43,262,780.47 current balance and 4.46-percent interest rate.

Overall, Warnock said the county collected $575,949.72 for the first quarter of 2025, with $241,526.02 in interest collected for March.

“[The $43 million in the ICS account] would have included our first-half [property tax] settlement, so that has dropped down considerably from that,” Warnock said. “I did figure from last year, from the first quarter, we are down probably about $50,000 from what we was last year, but interest rates have gone down a little bit, but we're still doing good.”

The treasurer added that she did not have had recommendations for any changes at this time.

• In other updates from the sheriff’s office, Sanders reported that they are working on scheduling mandatory five-week training for the numerous new hires in the jail and are looking into purchasing a new truck to replace outdated vehicles.

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve a resolution to authorize and direct the President of the County Board of Commissioners to submit an application for Community Development Block Grant to the Ohio Department of Development.

“This is our off year, so we're not getting our standard allocation, so people can apply for competitive set-aside money,” Highland County ARPA funding coordinator Nicole Oberrecht said. “[Mary Remsing, CDBG coordinator] has gotten two applications for critical infrastructure, one for the city of Hillsboro for a water line replacement on Greystone, and then the other one is for some upgrades at the Rocky Fork Lake sewer treatment plant.

“[Remsing] will be having her second public hearing on June 4 at 9 a.m., and this is just giving her authorization to submit those applications for consideration.”

• Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff reported that the number of children in protective care has reached the lowest total since he was hired as director nearly four years ago.

“We're down 120 kids right now in care,” Ratcliff said. “We’ve been as high as 196, and out of those 120, we've got 34 percent in kinship care, which is family or friends, so we don’t have foster care expenses for that.”

• Highland County Board of Elections director Michelle Swallen told commissioners that they are preparing for the official count from the primary election May 20, after which they will conduct an official audit of the votes.

“We have the ‘Youth at the Booth’ in now that's putting all of our scanners back up on the shelves and the cages so we don't have to lift them,” she said.

• Commission clerk Ashleigh Willey and Human Resources director Amy Bradley said the county this week posted a job opening for a kennel attendant at the Highland County Dog Pound. According to Bradley, the county has already received at least 30 applications.

• Commissioners authorized a statement of agreement/memorandum of understanding among the Highland County Common Pleas Court, Highland County Sheriff’s Office and Highland County Commissioners regarding TCAP [Targeted Community Alternatives to Prison] funding.

“I'm applying for the next grant cycle,” Highland County Probation Program Director/Chief Probation Officer Tonya Sturgill told commissioners. “The MOU is the understanding with the county that the state funds will be used to keep low-level, nonviolent felony-five offenders housed in the county jail in the community if they are deemed appropriate. If they are not, then they would be housed in the county jail.

“Randy [Sanders] used some of that money for cameras, to increase security in jail, radios, that kind of thing, last year. This is just the agreement saying that we are opting in again for the next cycle.”

Also approved were:

• A resolution stating that commissioners continue to support Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission’s Economic Development District planning partnership investment grant program with the USDOC Economic Development Administration for the annual performance period Jan. 1, 2026 through Dec. 31, 2026.

• A request from JFS for a transfer from Child Support Enforcement Fund (2015) to Public Assistance Fund (2050) in the amount of $24,747.62.

• A request from JFS for a transfer from Child Services Special Fund (2115) to Public Assistance Fund (2050) in the amount of $16,020.56.

• A request from the Board of Elections for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2300-2025 Primary Election Grant Fund in the amount of $20,500.

• A budget modification within the 1000 County General Fund in the amount of $20,000.

• An additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue within the 1000 County General Fund in the amount of $105,792.08. According to Oberrecht, this is Appalachian Community Grant money for the county to disburse to the City of Hillsboro.

• A request from EMA for an additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue within the 2780 Emergency Management Agency Fund in the amount of $5,000.

• An addendum to a previously approved IV-D contract among commissioners, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and Common Pleas Court for Domestic Relations magistrate services to reflect a contract number change.

• A Juvenile Court grant agreement and funding application through the Ohio Department of Youth Services.

• A $32,300 quote from Spectra Contract Flooring for remodeling the bathrooms at the Administration Building.

• A $7,582 change order regarding a new desk for the commissioners’ office, changing the veneer from laminate to wood.

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