MONTICELLO, NY — The Sullivan County Management Information Systems (MIS) or networks of computers, telephones and other hardware and software, has a long reach. It spreads from the government center in Monticello, to the social services complex in Liberty, the courthouse, the sheriff’s office and more. In fact, MIS serves 31 physical locations and 91 vehicles such as those belonging to the sheriff’s office.

The take-away from an MIS presentation to the county legislature’s Management and Budget Committee by Lorne Greene, its director, is that the MIS department has ballooned exponentially in the past 12 years and future years call for more of the same. Greene assembled the presentation at the behest of the legislature after Greene indicated he would like to hire someone for another webmaster position.

Like other departments, MIS had lost a number of staff due to layoffs during the Great Recession, and with the county workforce growing again, Greene would have liked the MIS staff to return to 2008 levels.

After the presentation, there was a fairly detailed discussion about the activities of the MIS. The question arose as to whether or not the department had become like the National Security Agency (NSA) and listened to the phone calls that come into the system. Greene said “no,” and that MIS activities had nothing to do with the NSA.

Specifically addressing the request for an additional staff member, Legislator Joe Perrello said that cuts had been made for a reason, and that from what he has experienced, the county is not coming out of the recession in any significant manner. As a result, all of the departments have to keep spending down. He further said the position of a web person could be farmed out for “$5,000 to $10,000 per year.” He noted that several other positions in MIS were filled last year.

At a meeting on April 21, the legislature voted five to four to allow Greene to fill the webmaster position.