Committee forwards city's five‑year ICT plan after questions on cybersecurity and language access

The Budget and Finance Committee on May 24 forwarded the city's five‑year Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plan to the full Board for adoption. Julian Johnson, representing the Committee on Information Technology (CoIT), summarized the plan covering fiscal years 2023–28 and said it identifies 83 priority projects with an estimated $244 million cost over four years, including about $109.5 million in general‑fund requests.

Johnson said the plan focuses on three goals: "online and accessible city services," "integrated city operations" and "IT infrastructure you can trust." The plan incorporates a Digital Accessibility and Inclusion Standard that requires vital information on city digital platforms to be human‑translated into threshold languages, which Johnson said are Chinese, Spanish and Filipino, and he noted that 52 departments had migrated to sf.gov as of February 2023.

Supervisors pressed on data security and whether cybersecurity work is included in the plan. Johnson pointed to ongoing projects led by the city's cybersecurity office and said those efforts are part of the plan. Vice Chair Rafael Mendelmann asked specifically about protections following breaches elsewhere; Johnson said the city has redundancies and a risk and resilience application to support departments. Supervisors also asked about justice system case‑management migration off legacy mainframes and permitting digitization; Johnson identified department heads who could provide details and said both topics are reflected in the plan and on page 11 of the filing.

The committee voted to forward the plan with a positive recommendation.

Next steps:The full Board will consider adopting the ICT plan by resolution; the plan does not itself appropriate funding but is intended to guide departmental budget requests and inform the mayor's forthcoming budget.