Dakota County using CARES Act funds to get rid of dinosaurs Working from home is the ‘new normal,’ and laptops are necessary

by John McLoone

The Dakota County Board held a special meeting last Tuesday to tackle some more issues brought about by COVID-19.

A few matters had to do with technology, needs of county staff and county residents. The board decided on some use of CARES Act funding.

Dakota County was allocated $52,259,027 in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding by the state of Minnesota.

To date, the county board has approved allocation of $10.4 million for a business grant program.

On July 28, the board reviewed allocation of an additional $4,193,867 in CARES-eligible expenses. A big chunk of that – $2,514,267 – related to purchasing laptops and docking stations as many staff members are still working from home.

Prior to Tuesday, the board had approved $13,567,500 in CARES Act spending. The board was scheduled to review more CARES Act items at an Aug. 4 meeting.

Dan Cater, county Chief Information Of_cer, said COVID-19 has changed the way the county works.

“It focuses on staff working remotely from their homes and the expenses we occurred,” Cater said of last week’s request.

Cater told county board members that the county has been on a _veyear rotation for computer purchases for departments. Laptops have a slightly shorter lifespan, meaning they have to be replaced every four years. County board members were on board with buying laptops instead of desktop computers. The docking stations allow the laptops to be plugged into networks and monitors.

Cater said that currently 43 percent of the county’s 3,300 computers are laptops.

Commission member Mary Liz Holberg asked whether this funding is replacing money the county had already budgeted for computer replacement.

“I would like more information on the laptops with docking stations and what our current budget had for IT….if we’re supplementing or supplanting that base budget amount,” she said.

Cater explained that the county had to in a short period of time make sure employees had the equipment necessary to work from home.

“I understand we have to pivot here,” said Holberg. “I would hope we’re not scrambling to spend this money but being very prudent in making these expenditures being mindful this is going to be with us for a while.”

Commission member Kathleen Gaylord agreed.

“I think Commissioner Holberg’s point is important. “We want to make sure we’re not just throwing money out the door and then we’ll have things we need to reimburse and need to expense.”

Holberg expressed the opinion that the commission needs a plan for the CARES Act funding.

“I feel like for a variety of reasons we as a board haven’t set principles or priorities with over $50 million. We’re just picking off this thing and that thing and that makes me nervous,” she said. Commission Chair Mike Slavik supported the technology plan.

“My only thought was this wasn’t something that caused me a lot of concern. This is one of the better ways to use the money,” he said.

County workers will be working from home for some time as a result of the pandemic.

“This gets us to our new normal,” he said. “This is a way to help them do their jobs. I don’t know when they come back. I felt like we were a little behind the times in technology. I felt this was something we should have been doing a while ago.”

“We could be teleworking into next year,” Slavik said.

Commissioner Joe Atkins moved the resolution forward, and it received approval.

“Desktops are dinosaurs,” he said. “We’re only at the beginning of this. I know that this is a signi_cant number,

but it’s something we need to do.”

Dakota County Commission Chair Mike Slavik