In March 2024, TAD had a ransomware attack.
The board of directors approved five contracts that totaled more than $1 million during a Feb. 26 meeting in Fort Worth.
The contracts awarded were for migration projects, technical support and consulting, network cabling, cybersecurity solutions, and backup capabilities.
“[The] only comment I would offer is that it seems like we're hearing that ... ‘we got stuff from 1930s in this building,’” said Rick Barnes, TAD board chair and Tarrant County tax collector-assessor. “I would really encourage this as we look forward, is that we come up with a schedule where they're scheduled out and planned in advance.”
The overview
The two largest contracts awarded were with CommVault for disaster recovery and backup solutions not to exceed $300,000 and $230,000 for servers.
TAD previously had an agreement with the Texas Department of Information Resources for a backup solution but that was canceled due to the inability to meet deadlines, according to documents. TAD is converting to a new appraisal software, CAMA, and this will provide a backup in case something happens.
Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt said currently the backups are carried off-site, and this would allow TAD to work off-site in the case of a disaster.
TAD will migrate from using AS400 imaging systems, which Bobbitt calls an “aging technology,” to move to a Windows-based technology. TAD formerly used VMWare virtual services, but the cost tripled, and this contract will switch to Hyper-V, a product from Microsoft. This funding was previously allocated from the infrastructure improvement funds, according to documents.
A closer look
Dallas-based Communications Unlimited was awarded a $154,860 contract for network cabling services to replace existing cabling that is original to the building, according to documents.
“The existing cable has become unreliable and/or does not efficiently support data transfer requirements of the new equipment,” the memo to board members states.
The specifics
Bobbitt also made a request for professional services for technical support and consulting for $150,000, up from last year’s $50,000 that was budgeted.
“So when you have an organization like TAD, you have a relatively small IT department, and that’s a critical function for the county,” TAD board member Alan Blaylock said. “We have already seen certain risk. We have a choice of hiring a lot of experts that are expensive that are a single-skill set or you have the opportunity to contract that skill set as you need it. It’s better to pay for five hours of $150,000 person than to pay for a $150,000 person.”
Also of note
The last contract awarded was to a cybersecurity firm for endpoint management, intrusion detection, multifactor authentication and email filtering, which reduces spam, phishing and malicious emails in and out of the organization, according to documents.
An unnamed company received the $150,000 contract.
“We are not mentioning the name because we don’t want to create a cybersecurity problem,” Bobbitt said. “They’re keeping track of it all in one area where they can monitor multiple avenues of attack. That way we can provide better insight to us to avoid another situation.”
One more thing
Four different school boards sent letters to TAD with resolutions passed by those boards to request reappraisals in 2025. If the ratios are at 90% or below based on property value study, school districts could lose state funding, according to TAD documents.
In previous meetings, Bobbitt noted when a reappraisal plan was changed to every two years, there could be issues where it could hurt the school districts.
Azle ISD, Castleberry ISD, Fort Worth ISD and Everman ISD all requested reappraisals.
