Bartholomew County government’s struggling IT department has taken another hit, with the pending resignations of all but one of its staff members, including a newly hired director.
The IT department keeps vital systems operating in the county including the emergency dispatch center, the jail computers and the court system network. Judge Kitty Coriden said earlier in the week that without daily IT support, the county courts simply can’t operate.
Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said all of the resignations won’t take effect until next week but the county is making plans. Yesterday the county met with two consulting firms to provide backup IT support, Sharp Management Services and Data Strategies.
Until the county can find qualified workers, get them hired and trained, the county will rely on the one employee and contractors to provide the needed around-the-clock IT support.
The IT department normally is supposed to have five employees, but was down to four until recently. Two staff resignations have come in the past two weeks and then the unexpected resignation of the newly hired IT director came Wednesday at 5 p.m., Kleinhenz said. The director had just started work this week.
The county recently raised the ceiling on the director’s pay to about $94 thousand a year to try to attract candidates.