Technology Commission enters closed session on cyberattack prevention; IT director reports on migration and delayed door-access project

At its Feb. 25 meeting the Franklin City Technology Commission voted to enter a closed session under Wisconsin Statute 19.85(1)(b) to consider strategy for crime prevention and cyberattack prevention related to the city's technical infrastructure. The motion to enter closed session was made by commission member Andy Pelkey and seconded by James Rayberger and approved by voice vote.

Back in open session the city's Director of IT, Richard Metalski, delivered a report on operational issues. Metalski said external and internal penetration testing is scheduled for April and will recur quarterly once tools are in place, and that monthly vulnerability assessments with an outside provider have "dramatically lowered the number of critical vulnerabilities." He identified legacy Office 2019 installations as a continuing risk and said those systems would be replaced with Office 365 clients.

Metalski also reviewed a multi-month door-access-control project with Johnson Controls (JCI). That JCI project launched in March 2025 but remained incomplete as of the Feb. 25 meeting; Metalski said the vendor has promised a project completion date of April 15, 2026. He described migration of the city domain from an older non-routable name to muni.franklinwi.gov and said the IT department implemented multi-factor authentication (MFA) with U2F (security) keys in recent months.

Why it matters: The scheduled penetration and vulnerability work directly relates to the broader discussion about centralizing security responsibilities. Commissioners and the director stressed the need to coordinate audits and vendor work and to ensure operating departments involve IT early when projects affect the network.

Outcome: The closed-session motion passed by voice vote; the commission did not announce further action in open session. Directors and commissioners agreed to continue work on the IT scope and to bring technical updates and proposed scope language to a future meeting.