Information Technology Budget Narrative

The Information Technology Department of Abington Township consists of Nathan Vasserman, Technology Officer, Ernie Howells, Police Technology Specialist, Grace Sekelewski, Communications Manager, and Ashley McIlvaine, Assistant Township Manager. We strive to keep township employees and residents with access to up-to-date and effective technology solutions for all the township’s various departments. We also seek to keep our technology solutions safe, not only from a security perspective, but from a disaster recovery perspective.

Disaster recovery plans in place include comprehensive daily backups, and an off-site server in the event of a major failure. Preventive security measures include up-to-date cloud-based EndPoint protection for each client machine, a front-end firewall, email and computer security policies and user training and instructions.

Technology is pervasive in our everyday lives and in our workplace, and users interact with it from the minute they sit down and log in to their computers in the morning, to the end of the day when they are checking their emails from their phones and laptops at home. Through use of this technology, we have been able to keep our employees accessible to each other, commissioners, and residents to provide the best possible service.

Many years ago, the IT Department only sought to support a user’s desktop computer, but in 2025 that expanded to any place where an employee might be working, and due to COVID-19 that definition has expanded to literally any place with an internet connection. We have users taking tablets and laptops out on the road, to their homes, in township vehicles, and even in our Refuse, Highway and Wastewater trucks. Many office workers still find themselves working from home some amount of time with their computer and mobile device to stay connected to the rest of the staff.

The continuing popularity of social media and demand for content from local governments also falls under the IT Department, working with our Communications Department. IT supports them in frequently putting out emails, social media, website updates and video content (both on our government access cable channels and website) to give our residents another avenue to stay involved with their government.

The IT Department has also continued to develop our GIS program to bring much of our location-based data into the 21st century. We are four years into a partnership with ESRI, the leading firm for map and database software, to allow us to bring the appropriate information to the public, commissioners and employees in a refined visual format. Some GIS related programs we have been working on involve a pavement management plan, a sanitary sewer mapping project, a stormwater management plan and a Citizen Service Request portal.

The IT Department will be rolling out our 2025 budget that includes hardware/software spending that is consistent from previous years. We are highlighting one major capital project that has been underway for many months. That project is an assessment of our security and networking infrastructure that was performed in 2024, and the remediation and improvements will continue into 2025.

Goal: Ensure the stability and security of our network and data. (Focus Areas: Excellent Public Services (EPS) and Sustainable Infrastructure (SI))

• Strategy #1: Consistently review and update the software involved in securing computers through Endpoint Protection. (EPS 2, SI 1, 2)
• Strategy #2: Keep up-to-date backups of all the township’s files and computer systems, patches and policies regarding computer systems. (SI 1, 2, 3)
• Strategy #3: Integrate the township satellite sites to seamlessly use our technology in the main township building, either through secure VPN connections or software-based WANs. (EPS 1, 2, SI 2)
• Strategy #4: Manage network connections including internet, VPNs, WANs and LANs and keep them running efficiently. Most of this will be reviewed doing our upcoming network infrastructure assessment. (EPS 1, 2, SI 2)
• Strategy #5: Continue to keep users aware of basic security, password policy and network use protocol so that they may not expose our computer network to risks. (SI 1, 3)

Goal: Provide IT support during public meetings and proper recording of appropriate public meetings. (Focus Area: Inclusive Community (IC))

• Strategy #1: Maintain equipment used during public meetings to support hybrid meeting formats. (IC 4)
• Strategy #2: Provide IT and zoom support during public meetings. (IC 4)
• Strategy #3: Maintain video production equipment. (IC 4)

Goal: Information for public consumption. (Focus Area: Inclusive Community (IC))

• Strategy #1: Help organize and transport information for the public, whether through responding to resident contacts or preparing documents for Right-To-Know requests. (IC 1, 4)
• Strategy #2: Keep our massive data library up to date and accessible for township purposes. (IC 1, 4)

Goal: Continue to encourage end users to utilize Office 365 features more. (Focus Areas: Excellent Public Services (EPS), Sustainable Infrastructure (SI))

• Strategy #1: Make use of SharePoint and Teams for enhanced employee collaboration and training users on built in Microsoft application features. (EPS 1, 2, 3)
• Strategy #2: Include security features such as Advanced Threat Protection and Multi-factor authentication for apps and emails. Train and educate users on possible security threats to mitigate the chance of a system breach by an attacker. (SI 1, 3)

Goal: Further develop our GIS program. (Focus Areas: Excellent Public Services (EPS), Inclusive Community (IC), Vibrant Public Spaces (VPS))

• Strategy #1: Harness our partnership with ESRI to update our geographic-based data and import it into a GIS platform. (EPS 1, IC 4, VPS 1, 2, 4)
• Strategy #2: Keep said data updated with the help of various staff members. Those staff members will be trained on how to best take advantage of the ESRI platform. (EPS 1, IC 4, VPS 1, 2, 4)

Goal: Develop an internal IT Ticketing System to better track support calls that come in from our users. (Focus Area: Excellent Public Services (EPS))

Continued OpenGov Enhancements

The Township has used OpenGov since April of 2021, processing permits, financials, budgeting (and soon to be) payroll on the cloud based system. Our Code Enforcement and Fire Marshal Department has been expanding the use of OpenGov to allow contractors and residents to begin applying for certain types of permits online. They also have been using software such as BlueBeam to track and issue plans and permits electronically, streamlining the process.

ESRI and ArcGIS Enterprise

The IT Department has continued developing its GIS program with the use of their ESRI Enterprise license. ESRI allows us to put township data into graphical and map formats. Some examples of these include maps to track street paving, department dashboards, tracking of township properties, sanitary and stormwater sewer infrastructure, and capital project tracking through CDBG grants. Some major ESRI projects for 2024 have been a Pavement Management solution and a Citizen Service Request portal that has been in use for over a year. 

Network and Security Assessments

The IT Department in 2024 has undergone two important 3^rd party assessments to determine the state of our computer network. The first was a security assessment performed in the spring to identify numerous potential security issues. The recent rise in cyber attacks on municipal government has given us many reasons to be cautious. A 3^rd party consultant scanned all of our internal systems and brought back recommendations. IT remediated the issues as necessary. The chance of our computer system being breached by a bad actor is now lower than it was a year ago.

The second assessment was an overall network assessment undergone in the summer to identify hardware and software procedures and see where we can make improvements. The improvements are not just security concerns but also address the performance of our computer system and redundancy in case of a failure. The recommendations that were made from the assessment are going to be worked on throughout 2024 and 2025.

Additional Security Improvements

The biggest security improvement in 2024 was deploying additional multi-factor login authenticators, and mobile device management across hundreds of devices. Unauthorized logins to our computer network are now more difficult than ever due to multiple sources of authentication. Mobile devices such as laptops, phones, and tablets are now protected so devices can be wiped or locked down at the first sign of trouble.

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Budget Message

General Fund (01)

General Government Overview