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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-04-25-minutes-it-study-session 2022-04-25 Minutes 1 Information Technology Commissioners’ Minutes Kittitas County, Washington Commissioners’ Conference Room Regular Meeting Monday 11:00 AM April 25, 2022 Board members present: Chair Laura Osiadacz, Vice-Chair Cory Wright, Commissioner Brett Wachsmith Others present: IT Director Jim Goeben Regular Meeting Information Technology Meeting called to order at 11:00 AM. Lean Update The board directed Mr. Goeben to bring the topic forward on the next Management Team agenda for their discussion and to report back to the board at the May IT Study Session. The board also asked for a link to the CJIS Polices: https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/cjis-security-policy-resource-center. Recommendation from IT and the IT Committee Regarding the Sherriff’s Request for LET Privileges There was discussion of the IT Department/IT Committee recommendations and the board approved Mr. Goeben’s response to the Sheriff and directed Mr. Goeben to bring the request for an IT staff position forward as part of the 2023 budget process. Meeting adjourned at 11:25 AM. Kittitas County Commissioners Information Technology Director Kittitas County, Washington _______________________________________ _______________________________________ Jim Goeben, IT Director Laura Osiadacz, Chair Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners STUDY SESSION STAFF REPORT Meeting Date: April 25, 2022 Agenda Subject: Lean Kaizen Report Submitted By: Jim Goeben, IT Director Request Type: Value add (process improvement, business opportunity) Recommended Action: Update only This is an update to the March 28, 2022, IT Study Session. I sent the following text to the Management Team on April 15th. No questions or concerns were received. Hello Management Team, I presented a lean project staff report to the Board of County Commissioners at the March 28 IT Study Session, and to the IT Committee at its April 12 meeting. The report detailed process improvements we are making to requesting service from IT. Below is a summary of the report for your review before I send it to all staff. If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please let me know and I’ll be happy to talk with you. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Since last October, IT has been reviewing our service request system to improve how we process your requests. We used your responses to our annual surveys and the value survey we conducted last year as the basis of this work. We selected Lean Methodology as our structured approach for deciding what changes to make with the goal of improving our IT support service to you while simultaneously increasing efficiency within our department. We engaged the free Lean Services provided by the Center for Government Innovation at the Washington State Auditor’s Office and were fortunate to work with the same Lean Specialist who worked with us several times in the past. Below are some of the improvements we are making. We ask for your support of these changes so that we may provide you better solutions, improved communication, faster responses, and more focused attention. Service Request Form We are changing the CAMAS service request form to be more user-friendly and less confusing by asking a few simple questions rather than asking you to select an “urgency”. Your answers will communicate the impact of the issue on you and to the county so we can better prioritize your request. Page 2 We’ve already established an internal process for assigning requests, which has streamlined our workflow and is helping us meet our Service Level Agreement target of assigning requests within 30 minutes. Office Security IT is required by several regulatory agencies to be a secure area. This means non-IT staff must be escorted while in our office and not exposed to security information (drawings on whiteboards, viewing documents, hearing conversations, etc.). To meet these requirements, you may visit IT by invitation only. Send us a service request and we’ll be happy to schedule a time for you to visit that is convenient for both of us. Requesting Help One principle of Lean is that standardized workflows minimize disruption to workers (considered waste) and enable work to be completed quickly, consistently, and accurately (adding value to the customer). Currently, requests are made in a variety of ways which is not a standardized workflow. It can be confusing to you, and it causes IT unnecessary and frequent shifting of focus away from working on your request. By reducing wasted time and energy caused by disruptions, IT staff will be able to produce higher quality work faster. So, one of our processes we are standardizing is requesting support from IT. • Non-emergency help – send us a CAMAS service request and we’ll contact you as soon as we are available and ready to assist you • Emergency stoppage help – 24/7/365, call x510 and press 1; someone will answer or leave us a voicemail and we will call you back shortly • In-person help – we are required to be a secure area; please send us a service request and we’ll arrange to help you; this will ensure your time isn’t wasted waiting for IT staff to be available. Here are some examples of what is considered an emergency stoppage: • Court or a public meeting is waiting on audio/video to proceed • Transfer station system is down, and customers are lining up • Payroll deadline will not be met • Anything that would result in missing a legal deadline • Anything related to a potential security compromise Standardizing the methods of requesting help increases the County’s ability to prioritize all work so help can be provided first to the request with the highest impact, assuring that we meet all legal, procedural and safety requirements. By reducing frequent focus shifting, our staff can ultimately respond to all requests more quickly, improve communication with you, and produce better solutions. Future Improvements Based on your responses to our surveys, we know it is important to you to see our queue of requests and where your request falls in that queue. We also know it is important for you and your DH/EO to have input into the prioritization of requests. These goals are a big challenge that we are currently working on and hope to address later this year. Page 3 # # # Lean is a holistic approach to reduce unnecessary effort and increase value for the customer through continuous process improvement. Standardizing processes for speed and accuracy frees up time to focus on exceptions and utilize creativity. Lean doesn't solve all problems; it's about small value-adding changes and continuous improvements over time. We look forward to continuing this work, getting your feedback, and making more process improvements. Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners STUDY SESSION STAFF REPORT Meeting Date: April 25, 2022 Agenda Subject: Sheriff Myers’ request for elevated privileges for the Law Enforcement Technologist Submitted By: IT Director Jim Goeben, IT Committee Request Type: Internal operations Recommended Action: IT and IT Committee recommends: 1. Providing elevated privilege access for the Sheriff’s LET position to systems that are used only by the Sheriff’s office, e.g., body- worn camera (future), surveillance, body scanner, and fingerprinting 2. Network and enterprise systems continue to be administered by the IT Department 3. IT hire an Operations Administrator to reduce the backlog and increase the responsiveness of the Operations division. Background/Summary: In 2013, then Undersheriff Myers asked for IT Director support in the Sheriff’s request for a Law Enforcement Technologist (LET), a non-IT Department position for Tier 1 (service desk) and Sheriff technology specific (radio, MDC, and surveillance equipment) support within the Sheriff’s office. The current job description reflects these duties. • Provide Sheriff users Tier I support and assist the IT Department with Tier II support. • Provide support services for printers, network connection, and remote site connectivity. • Coordinate with IT Department on network, systems, and application development. IT’s Service Level Agreement with the Sheriff’s Office defines the IT Department’s role as providing “Tier 2 Support – issues that cannot be resolved by Tier 1 Support, are of an advanced nature, or involve any network or enterprise systems.” On March 21, 2022, Sheriff Myers requested IT grant industry-standard Tier 2 access” to the Sheriff-LET “to address infrastructure related issues including switches, servers, and related traffic hardware.” Specifically, the request is for 4 items: 1. Network switches within Sheriff network scope 2. Wi-Fi access point remote management 3. Direct involvement in hardware purchasing Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners 4. An “Elevated Permissions” account Previous Board Action: In 2013 the Board approved hiring the LET position in the Sheriff’s office as Tier 1 and Sheriff specific technology support. Analysis: First, our consideration of the Sheriff’s request reflects the position with the Sheriff’s Office, not the current employee in that position. We respect Jeremy Reynolds and his skills. We don't know who might be in the LET position in the future and if we would have the same level of trust in them. As Sheriff Myers has stated to Director Goeben, policies and procedures are not written for the employees you have, but the employee you could have. Second, we have considered both technical capabilities of providing the requested access, and the operational effects of doing so. Technical Considerations 1. Network switches within Sheriff network scope Currently, there are few servers and switches used only by the Sheriff’s Office. At specific locations around county facilities there are network switches that route traffic from multiple offices/departments through multiple VLAN segmentations. While it is possible to add an additional administrator to the switch, that administrator would have full administrative rights to all ports, including those not in the Sheriff’s scope. To grant the LET privileged access to network switches, IT could move the Sheriff’s traffic to separate Sheriff-only switches, at an estimated cost of $38,520, 42 IT hours to regroom the switches, plus MA/SH/IT cost of adding ethernet cables. All changes would need to be pre-submitted to IT through the change management process prior to being implemented. 2. Wi-Fi access point remote management Currently all access points reside in one logical “site” per location. Administrative access is provided by site. Providing administrative privileges to a site would allow control of all access points within that site. Additionally, access points are not office/department specific but serve Wi-Fi traffic from multiple departments. Changes affecting one access point would affect all offices/departments connected to the access point. IT could separate access points into a “Sheriff” site and an “Everyone Else” site; however, this still would not separate access points by office/department traffic, so changes would affect all offices/departments using that access point. For Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners example, access points at the Umptanum building affect the Sheriff and Prosecutor’s offices. 3. Direct involvement in hardware purchasing I believe this already has been addressed. IT’s process has been to provide computer specifications to the DH/EO for approval prior to purchasing. It is understood those specifications were not always making it to the individuals with the appropriate knowledge. IT has met with Christopher Whitsett and Jeremy Reynolds and has agreed to include them on the specification signoff, including the quote from the vendor, prior to purchase. This will correct any past issues experienced by the Sheriff’s Office. 4. LET “Elevated Permissions” account IT is waiting on additional information for this request which doesn’t contain specifics as to what system the account would access and what permissions are needed. If there are specific Sheriff only technologies that do not cross over into other offices/departments, such as the surveillance cameras, body-worn cameras, body scanner, and the fingerprinting system, IT has minimal concerns with the LET position having elevated privileges to those systems, so long as LET position follows county policy of having a separate elevated privilege account with additional password requirements, MFA if available, and the elevated privilege account is used only for elevated privilege activities. The need for 24/7/365 emergency stoppage IT support is being addressed in changes IT is making later this month as a result of its Lean project. When implemented, emergency stoppages can be reported to IT by calling x510, 24/7/365, which will relay to all IT devices and then senior staff cell phones. This will help ensure emergency stoppages will be responded to as quickly as possible. Operational Considerations The request states it is made to accomplish “time-critical fixes, enhance system performance, and ensure the secure and efficient operation of KCSO technologies.” Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners Time-critical Fixes We acknowledge there is a backlog within IT Operations (systems and network administration) which results in delayed responses and scheduled activities. For more than 20 years, the Operations division has remained at 2 FTEs while the number of systems, hardware, and technologies supported have increased dramatically. Security concerns alone could consume the resources of 1 FTE. IT is always available to address time-critical issues. If we are made aware of them, they are prioritized over non-time-critical requests. We are not aware of any time-critical issues we have been unavailable to resolve. For less than critical fixes, scheduling activities is standard procedure in almost all industries. A simple solution would be to bring IT into the project during the planning phase and to continue communication throughout the project so that tasks can be scheduled to occur when needed. To address non-time-critical fixes and the backlog of work in the Operations division, IT recommends IT hire an Operations Administrator who can support both systems and operations administration, thereby shortening the response time for both critical and non-critical fixes for all offices and departments. Enhanced System Performance Poor system performance has not been reported to IT as something needing to be addressed. System performance of the network and enterprise systems are the purview of the IT Department and should not be addressed by anyone outside of IT. For Sheriff only systems, IT has minimal concern with providing LET administrative access. See 4 above. Secure and efficient operation of KCSO technologies Security and efficiency of the network and enterprise systems are a purview of the IT Department. For Sheriff only systems, IT has minimal concern with providing LET administrative access. See 4 above. Elevated privileges to network and enterprise systems IT has serious concerns of providing elevated privileges to network and enterprise systems to any employee outside of the IT Department. The IT Director is responsible for the county network and enterprise systems, and the security of the electronic public records that reside on the Kittitas County Board of County Commissioners county network. Providing elevated privileges to an employee outside of the IT Director’s authority would mean the IT Director no longer would have authority over that which he is responsible. The Sheriff’s request is for “industry-standard Tier 2 access” but there is no such industry defined access for non-IT employees. Industry standard is to provide privilege access only to IT staff. Additionally, all industry standards refer to the “principal of least privilege” to maintain basic security. This principal means each person gets only the minimum necessary privileges to complete their job. The LET duties of Tier 1 support and Sheriff only technology are being met with current privileges. County policy, as recommended by the IT Committee and adopted by the Board, specifically states “7.4.14 Network Equipment - Only IT shall access, modify, configure, or physically alter network equipment, e.g., switches, access points, etc.” Effect on IT and other Offices IT also has concerns that if the responsibilities of the LET are increased to include Tier 2 support, the LET would not have sufficient time for Tier 1 support, and there will be a need for another LET position in the Sheriff’s Office, or Tier 1 support will be moved back to IT. And other elected officials and department heads will request similar privileges. Financial Impact: Recommendation 1 - Providing elevated privilege access for the Sheriff’s LET position to systems that are used only by the Sheriff’s office, e.g., body-worn camera, surveillance, body scanner, and fingerprinting No financial impact. Recommendation 2 - Network and enterprise systems access continue to be administered by the IT Department No financial impact. Recommendation 3 - IT hire an Operations Administrator to reduce the backlog and increase the responsiveness of the Operations division Approximately $130,000. Interaction: IT Committee, April 12, 2022. The IT Committee forwarded a favorable recommendation for the board to approve the recommendations. Handling: None. Attachments: Letter from Sheriff Myers dated Marcy 31, 2022. KITTITASCOUNTYSHERIFF'SOFFICEClayMyers,Sheriff3/21/2022To:JimGoebenDirector,InformationTechnologyTheSheriff'sOfficerequeststoexpandthepermissionsandaccessgrantedtotheKCSO-LETtoaccomplishtime-criticalfixes,enhancesystemperformance,andensurethesecureandefficientoperationofKCSOtechnologies.WerequestthattheLETbegrantedindustry-standardTier2accesstoaddressinfrastructurerelatedissuesincludingswitches,servers,andrelatedtraffichardware.WeseekKCSO-LETaccesstonetworkswitcheswithinournetworkscope.ThisneednotbefullAdminAccessbutwouldallowbasicconfigurationofports.Desiredpermissionsincludereviewinglogs,turningupportstoexpandaccess,adjustingVLANSasneededforadding/movingWIFI,SIP,andnormalPCdevices.ItwouldbeexpectedthattheLETwouldadviseCountyITinatimelymannerofchanges,makingnotificationbeforeanychangeswhenpossible,andwouldbemoreinvolvedwithcountyITonexpansionandupgradeplanning.WealsorequestbasicremoteaccesstoWIFInodeswithinourareastopermitbettermonitoringandremoteresetasneeded.Currentlywemustmanuallypower-cycletheAP'swhenthey"actup";somearemoreaccessiblethanothersforthissub-optimalworkaround.Aswithnetworkswitches,wedon'taskfullAdminAccess-justenoughtoperformneededtasksaffectingourlocalenvironment.Third,werequestmoredirectinvolvementinhardwarepurchasing.OurrequestscurrentlygothroughIT'spurchaseportaland,atsomepoint,arefarmedouttoaDellrep.Inseveralcasesthishasresultedinrequestedspecsbeingdroppedormodifiedwithoutourlearningofchangesuntillateinthepurchasecycle-orevenafterdelivery.WerequestdirectcontactwithDellearlyinthequoterequestandreviewstage.We'regladtopurchasehardwarethoughcountyIT;adirectsignoffwiththevendorpriortoorderingwouldavoidpotentiallycostlyissuesanddelays.Finally,weaskthecreationofan"ElevatedPermissions"account,tailoredinclearcommunicationwithIT.SuchanaccountwouldfacilitatetimelyaddressingofKCSO's24/7/365needswithoutthedirectlyinvolvingIT,particularlyinafter-hoursandweekendemergencies.WeunderstandandappreciateIT'svitalresponsibilitytocontrolaccessandchangestocountysystems.However,currentrestrictionsonKCSO-LETpermissionsandaccesshavecreatedunnecessarydowntimeincriticalsystemsandunnecessaryexposureforthecounty.WedonotandwouldnotasktoputthecountyatriskbyrequestingpermissionsoraccessbeyondthecapabilitiesorunderstandingofourLET.WerecognizethevitalneedforcommunicationandaccountabilityregardingallcountyITandrequestanexpandedroleinourjointeffortstoprotectandservetheinterestsofthecounty,itspeople,andtheirtechnologicalassets.ClayMyers,KittitasCountySheriff307W.UmptanumRd·Ellensburg,Washington98926PHONE509-962-7525FAX509-933-7599https://www.co.kittitas.wa.us/sheriff