McMinnville officials had to branch outside the state in an effort to find a written request for proposals in order to hire an IT security company.
For several months, officials have discussed the need to hire a company to bolster the city’s computer security. However, that process has not been easy due to staff’s inability to find an existing RFP – the documentation needed to solicit bids from companies for their consideration – the city could tweak and use.
City administrator Bill Brock told the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in December he was not able to locate that particular documentation in Tennessee.
“Nothing exists to help write this,” said Brock. “As far as I know, in the state of Tennessee, it doesn’t exist.”
City attorney Tim Pirtle informed board members this month that the search is finally over, but it did require Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service to branch out into other states.
“On the issue of city’s cyber security, the board tasked me with assisting and providing language for a request for proposals on a cyber security system,” said Pirtle. “I reached out to Melissa Ashburn, senior counsel at MTAS, who reported back to me she could not find it in Tennessee. She extended her search to out of state and provided me with, I think, some five requests for proposals that had been used. They are lengthy, but they are good.”
One RFP was from Kirkland, a city in Washington, and it is over 25 pages long. Pirtle said Ashburn also included a survey with the requested documents.
“Interestingly, she also sent the result from a survey that had been done nationwide. It appears 60 percent of cities do not outsource cyber security at all. It may just be that they are behind the curve and not just plugged into the issue the way we’ve become, certainly since the Murfreesboro Police Department got hacked.”
Using the documentation, officials can now begin the process to generate a request for proposals with the intent of hiring an IT security company to boost the city’s computer security.
