About

City Hall IT is a blog about doing information technology for local government, written by someone who does it every day.

I work in IT for a small city. The job covers identity and Microsoft 365, networks and phones, GIS, the council chamber AV, and a steady stream of public records questions about all of it. Most of what I've learned came from getting something wrong first. This site is where I write those lessons down for other people in the same seat.

#What this site covers

• Identity and access: MFA rollouts, single sign-on, account lifecycles and the help desk calls that come with them
• Microsoft 365 in government: licensing, government cloud quirks, SharePoint and Teams for departments that don't think of themselves as technical
• GIS: keeping maps, parcels and field apps working for planning, public works and utilities
• Records and retention: what public records law means for email, chat, backups and deletion
• Budgets and procurement: getting technology through quotes, bids, contracts and council approval
• Security on a small team: what's realistic when you can't buy everything on the vendor slide

#Why it's anonymous

The lessons travel better without the city attached. Writing anonymously lets me be candid about mistakes without putting coworkers, vendors or residents on the spot, and it keeps details about a real network off the internet. Names, places, dates and technical specifics are changed in every post. Here's how.

Nothing here represents my employer, any city, or any vendor. See the disclaimer for the details.

#Get in touch

Email desk@cityhallit.com with questions, corrections or your own war stories. I read everything, though I can't always reply quickly. Please don't send anything you wouldn't want shared, and please don't include details about your own organization's security gaps.

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