Dothan IT Management Needs Attention - Public Safety Depends On It

Rickey Stokes

Viewed: 1844

Posted by: RStokes
[email protected]
3347901729
Date: May 28 2021 11:21 AM

DOTHAN:    The City of Dothan took four years to hire a IT Department Head.

For four years Rob Meredith was "good enough" to be the "acting" IT Manager for four years but not good enough to be the IT Manager. Former Dothan City Manager Mike West hired Jack Mason from Jackson County Florida to be the IT Department Head. He was the IT Manager for Dollar General or Family Dollar. He had zero experience in Public Safety IT.

It is almost daily now the computer system is down somewhere in the bowels of the City of Dothan. IF you could get the department heads with Dothan to be honest, they do not think Jack Mason can handle the job.

This morning the computer system and cameras within Dothan Police Department are down. Earlier this week the 911 lines were down. Several weekends the computer system has been down.

What is also odd, former Dothan IT Department Head Tim Stewart lived in Slocomb. He was a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Dothan, on Cottonwood Road. Stewart even filled in as Interim Minister of Music at Bethel Baptist. He was/is a faithful member of Bethel Baptist Church in Dothan.

But then Dothan City Manager Mike West demanded that Stewart moved to the city limits of Dothan if he was to continue as IT Department Head. AGAIN, Stewart lived in Slocomb. Stewart retired from the City of Dothan.

Then Dothan City Manager Mike West hired Jack Mason. He allowed him to remain a resident of Jackson County Florida and not required to move to Dothan.

Mason can not handle the job of Dothan IT Department Head. The Public Safety arena can not afford to keep Mason as IT Department Head.

Public Safety operates 365 days a year, 24 hour a day. The computer system is a required part of the public safety network. It can not effectively operate without the computer backbone system.

If the computer system operation was not so vitally important to the public safety it would not matter so much. But ... it is and I have heard the complaints within the bowels of the City of Dothan. But as normal ... blind eye turned.

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