IT shakeup in Washington County government; commissioners name acting director, choose consultants

The Washington County commissioners on Thursday named both an acting director of technology and consultants to the information technology department.
As the Washington County Salary Board meeting, the commissioners plus Controller Michael Namie created the position of acting director for the Information Technology department.
Matthew Cain, a county employee since 2002, will augment his salary of $61,077 with an additional $1,200 monthly stipend in his new role with additional responsibilities, effective June 8. Cain had been network and systems manager.
Commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan said after the conclusion of the salary board meeting that she could not discuss the status of Debra L. Rutan, Washington County chief information officer, calling it “an HR (human resources) issue that I can’t discuss; I’m sorry.”
She said Cain “was willing to step up in the gap based on the changes we want to make.”
Rutan began working for the county since 1992. She rose through the departmental ranks, starting as a technician and was put in charge of the IT department in March 2017.
In a related matter, the commissioners unanimously entered into consulting agreements with Opal Business Solutions LLC of McMurray, Peters Township, and Ford Business Machines of Connellsville, Fayette County, for strategic planning related to information technology.
John Haynes, county government’s chief of staff, said the firms will be paid an initial hourly rate as they determine the exact number of hours needed to review the county’s IT needs.
Opal’s rate, he said, is $175 per hour, and Ford’s is $99 per hour and up depending on the number of staff members required.
The firms are to oversee the development of a strategic information technology plan and the streamlining of servers, bringing all storage needs from physical servers into the cloud, Irey Vaughan said.
They will also be tasked with making email services more secure, and implementing a ticketing system to provide daily feedback about software and hardware failures and improve communications.
The county also seeks to do long-term planning for replacement needs.