Lake County Technology Committee approves contracts, adopts two IT security policies

Chair Clark called the Lake County Technology Committee to order at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 27 and led a meeting that approved multiple technology contracts, accepted a court modernization grant and adopted two countywide IT security policies.

Lisa Wolf, director of finance for the 19th Judicial Circuit Court, presented a $50,000 award from the Supreme Court of Illinois's Court Technology Modernization Program, saying the funds will replace the courthouse "kids corner" paging system, provide Surface tablets to pretrial services (replacing clipboard-and-paper workflows), refresh education computers in the juvenile detention facility and buy extra language-interpreting earpieces to ensure jurors and interpreters hear the same information.

"This year, it's $50,000," Wolf said, noting the award is much smaller than last year's nearly $1.3 million allocation and that the county prioritized items that recently became necessary rather than large capital projects.

The committee approved the grant acceptance by voice vote.

CIO Chris Blanding and Applications Manager Mike Maslana summarized a $310,032 renewal with TD SYNNEX for Oracle BOSS application support. Blanding said the vendor provides functional support for the county's legacy ERP (the BOS system), assists with quarterly and emergency patching and will help with data conversion and support work as Lake County migrates to Workday; staff said the contract should end once the legacy system is decommissioned.

"They are experts in the Oracle environment," Blanding said, describing the vendor's role in configuration and incident response during patching and migration.

The committee also approved a $306,654 contract with Logicalis to replace end-of-life network switches and backbone hardware so those devices meet current security and patching standards. Eric Carlson, the county's CTO, said the refresh replaces switches that have reached end-of-life and brings equipment up to current security standards.

A $38,066 modification to the county's SHI contract was approved to add a secure remote-support tool that consolidates remote access and endpoint patching tools. Carlson explained that attackers often use remote-support tools to move inside networks and said the added product will provide a more secure, standardized way to support remote machines while reducing tool sprawl.

On policy, IT staff presented a modernized Acceptable Use Policy intended for all users who connect to the Lake County network, including vendors and third-party contractors. Staff said the policy was developed using state security templates and NIST guidance, and that it was shaped by input from departmental IT leads and county policy coordinators.

"The user is the human firewall to our network," Carlson said, urging clear expectations for behavior and reporting. Committee members emphasized education and accountability: Member Frank and others urged training, onboarding integration and signage for current employees; one member suggested breaking training into short sections with quiz questions to ensure comprehension.

The committee approved the Acceptable Use Policy by voice vote and then adopted an Identification and Authentication Policy that defines unique user IDs, privileged-account separation and minimum multifactor authentication (MFA) requirements. Staff noted the county already uses Beyond Identity for MFA and that the new policy will standardize authentication practices across departments.

In a director's report, Blanding updated the committee on the Workday ERP project. He said recent steering-committee and governance-charter work has focused the planning, use-case alignment and the scheduling of workstream meetings. Staff pinned a tentative go-live around Sept. 1 but said the date could shift by several weeks if additional rework is required; they flagged a funding deadline that will constrain timing but said giving staff more time could reduce later rework.

All agenda motions, including the consent agenda, the grant acceptance, the contract renewals and the two policy adoptions, carried on voice votes. Chair Clark adjourned the meeting and said the committee will next meet April 3, 2026.

Votes at a glance: Accept consent agenda (item 8.1) ' approved; Item 8.2 (court tech grant) ' approved; Item 8.3 (TD SYNNEX Oracle BOSS renewal, $310,032) ' approved; Item 8.4 (Logicalis network refresh, $306,654) ' approved; Item 8.5 (SHI contract modification, $38,066) ' approved; Item 8.6 (Acceptable Use Policy) ' approved; Item 8.7 (Identification & Authentication Policy) ' approved.