Joshua Miller
Systems Administrator

Information Technology

Mission Statement

It is the mission of the City of Elmira Department of Information Technology to provide superior quality service and support to City Departments, Employees, Contractors, and Partners and to implement new ideas, technologies, policies, standards, and practices to improve workflow efficiencies in governmental services for the benefit of all taxpayers.

Purpose

Information Technology provides strategy and support for a wide variety of technology services for City of Elmira offices, departments, and employees. The IT Department is responsible for end-user desktop support, network and infrastructure management, website and intranet development, employee training, application support, project management, and consulting.

Effective use of technology has been proven to increase efficiency and decrease the costs of government. The City of Elmira IT Department evaluates new technology, hardware, software, and network applications and makes recommendations to the City Manager and Department Heads for purchase and implementation. IT staff works with city departments and municipal partners with existing shared service contracts to ensure a stable, secure, and efficient delivery of desktop, network, and web-based applications that promote the efficient and effective delivery of government services to the people of the City of Elmira and Chemung County.

Staff

The IT Department is staffed by one full-time employee. The Internet Systems Administrator is the front-line for support and management of City computer and network systems on a daily basis. The Internet Systems Administrator is also the webmaster, managing the development and publication of content for the City's website.  

The Internet Systems Administrator is assisted by a contracted Network Administrator provided by e-formations inc. The IT Department is under the supervision of the Director of Public Services/IT.

  • Josh Miller: Internet Systems Administrator
  • Jeff Morgan of e-formations inc: Network Administrator
  • Andrew P. Avery, P.E.: Director of Information Technology

Applications

The City of Elmira Department of Information Technology Supports a wide-range of network-based, computer-based, and web-based applications and technologies.  The list below is a short overview of some of the applications in use by the City of Elmira on a daily basis.

How to Contact Us

Vendors wishing to contact the IT Department should send offers or product descriptions via postal mail to City Hall. The IT Staff will respond to items of interest.

Equipment Surplus

When equipment has been replaced, is no longer needed, or has exceeded its life cycle, it may be sold at the City's annual auction. The auction, usually held in October, makes this equipment available to the highest bidder. Items on the auction list, their condition, and the time and date of the auction are usually announced at least one month prior to the auction. In some instances, a second auction may be held in the spring to dispense of equipment when excessive inventories are present. Contact the Purchasing Department for more details regarding the annual auction and items available for auction.

Unfortunately, New York State law prohibits the City of Elmira from donating surplus equipment to any other organization of agency unless it is a municipal organization.
»Contact your State Representatives and ask them to change the law!

Shared Services

The City of Elmira IT Department has developed shared service offerings to allow the City and other local municipalities to leverage common investments and technology. These shared services enable the City to extend its advanced Information Technology Infrastructure to other local municipalities who can take advantage of the City's investment at a fraction of the cost. These arrangements benefit all of the taxpayers in Chemung County.

Chemung County Real Property Services
The Chemung County Assessor's Association was exploring an upgrade to RPS, the application used by the County and its municipalities to track and maintain assessment data for property tax purposes. The prior system involved municipalities maintaining their own files and submitting them via email or floppy disk to the County on a routine basis. To improve efficiencies from this system, the City proposed hosting the state's new RPS application on Terminal Services, maintaining all of the property and assessment information in one location, easily accessible by all Assessors through a secure Internet connection. The new system reduces overhead for the municipalities as they no longer have to update RPS or submit their database to the County, there is greater information-sharing between municipalities, and data that used to take days and several phone calls to receive is available instantly. The system is more cost-effective and efficient for municipalities.

The City currently has a shared-service RPS contract with over 12 municipalities in Chemung County and several Chemung County departments.

Website Design and Development
The City of Elmira IT Department provides low-cost, easy-to-maintain, website design and development services to several local municipalities and organizations. These websites, designed in customized Open Source Software applications allows the municipality or organization the freedom to take control of their website. The City's Webmaster develops the content by working with client's staff, determining and assessing the needs of the client organization. The City Webmaster develops the website and provides training to client staff on maintenance and development. Support is provided continuously to ensure a consistent and fresh look to the website.

The City's approach is simple: it is much cheaper to pay a flat fee for website development over 5 years than it is to pay the same amount to a developer to develop a website for and walk away or worse, bill for changes by the hour. This approach enables clients to make website development more affordable and predictable and promotes the citizen's demands for E-Government services, even in smaller municipalities.

The City of Elmira encourages local municipalities to make the leap to implementing E-Government solutions using the advice and methods described in the Center for Technology in Government's essay "Making a Case for Local E-Government" and "Untangle the Web: Delivering Municipal Services Through the Internet".

Some of the websites developed by the City of Elmira include:

Geographic Information Systems
The City of Elmira IT Department and Engineering Division have played a critical role in the continuous development of GIS in Chemung County.  IT staff are active in the Chemung County GIS Cooperative Technical Committee in making recommendations for the implementation of GIS technologies to make government in Chemung County more efficient, cost-effective, and accessible to the people.

Mailing List Applications
The City of Elmira IT Department hosts a number of mailing lists used to communicate information to the public and municipal partners to promote open government to the people and encourage information-sharing between other governments and organizations.

Mailings lists include:

  • The City of Elmira Website Update List (open to the public)
  • Elmira Downtown Development Newsletter (open to the public)
  • RPS Users Mailing List (for RPS users)
  • Law Enforcement Bulletin List (used by Law Enforcement Officers in the every agency in Chemung County and several neighboring counties to communicate information)

Commitment to Education

The City of Elmira IT Department is committed to education in Information Technology. IT Staff attends functions such as Southern Tier Tech Day and serves on Advisory Committees such as the Business Advisory Committee for the GST Boces TEC Program. Serious students committed to gaining valuable on-the-job training may be eligible for an internship with the City of Elmira.  Contact the IT Department for more information.