Citing their duty “to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” the Sequoyah County Commissioners have curtailed using a cybersecurity company that the assessor’s office has used since 2017, choosing instead to utilize the business services of a similar company approved by the state.
The decision at the commissioners’ weekly meeting on Monday was a sequel to a May 27 meeting at which the commissioners challenged the assessor’s office’s continued use of Apprentice Information Systems of Oklahoma (AIS) instead of AF3 Technical Solutions, the computer systems service company contracted by the state for use by county governments, over the objections of County Assessor Brandy Allen (formerly Dobbs).
But despite AIS providing the assessor’s office support-only services for the past year and Allen’s desire to continue using the company that was put in place in 2017 by her predecessor, Kelly Miller, there are two major sticking points:
• The commissioners never signed off on a contract with AIS, and
• Services AF3 provides are approved by the state and are free to county governments.
At the May 27 meeting, District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts noted that any contract, and therefore any payment, would have to be approved by the District Attorney’s office.
“He approved it last July,” Allen reminded the commissioners. Assistant District Attorney Andy Williams approved the contract, but the commissioners tabled the contract to allow Allen time for due diligence on AIS versus AF3.
“He approved it, but we didn’t approve it,” Watts retorted.
The lack of a contract with AIS notwithstanding, the county still owes AIS about $7,800 for the current fiscal year, which was one of the primary reasons Allen brought the matter before the board more than three weeks ago.
But because Monday’s agenda item did not specify that the commissioners would vote on payment to AIS, the matter of payment became moot. It is expected to be on next week’s agenda for payment consideration.
“Andy [Williams] would not sign [off on it] because we did not sign a contract,” District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers told Watts regarding the amount owed.
“I feel the right thing to do — since we utilized their service — is to pay them for their services, the $7,800,” Rogers said. “I don’t think theDA,aslongastheboard will agree to do that … he had problems with not doing that [for FY25].
“I don’t want anybody to provide a service to the county that we’re not going to pay for, whether it’s approved or not up front,” he said.
And Watts was quick to assure AIS: “We have every intention of paying you what we owe you.”
Then Monday’s agenda item — “discussion and possible approval of a 2024-25 master services agreement by and between AIS and Sequoyah County Assessor” — reached a resolution.
“But I do feel like for us to be good stewards of the county that, moving forward, we do end up moving from Apprentice to AF3 for future usage. We’re already paying for that. We’ve got 64 other counties that’s utilizing this program right now [and] there are no issues with that,” Rogers said.
“We have to make tough decisions at times, but we also have to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money. We’re not an Oklahoma County, we’re not a Tulsa County where we just have unlimited funds. We really struggle just to survive. We have to count every penny. We have to utilize those pennies in the best method possible.”
The case for AIS
Representatives from both AF3 and AIS attended Monday’s meeting to answer questions about their services. Both companies began in 2019. And while AF3 earned the state contract, AIS was also in the running for the preferred vendors’ list.
“AF3 is a program that’s provided by the state for free, and Apprentice, we pay for that, and that’s basically what we’re trying to do is justify why we should pay an additional $12,000 for a program,” Rogers summarized Monday’s scrutiny of the companies.
When Allen corrected Rogers that the amount due for AIS was “less than $7,800” and not $12,000, Rogers specified that the invoice was lowered by more than $4,000.
“The original contract was $11,333. He lowered it to that. Any additional monies, I want to justify why we should pay the taxpayers’ money if we already have a program that’s provided by the state for free,” Rogers said.
But Allen remained steadfast.
“AF3 doesn’t provide, for free, a malware service for our firewall,” she used as an example. “They do backup our systems, however, we still have our Microsoft Word, our Microsoft 365, all of our support maintenance for the computers that we do have, we’ve all purchased through Apprentice, we’ve been with Apprentice for seven years. We utilize these services every day, I just finished utilizing these services.
“We were able to lower some of that cost, because we did away with a couple of our email licenses that we didn’t need, we took those away. We tried to bring that bill down where it was sufficient. We’ve got the money, it was budgeted to our account last year. We’ve got that money in our account to pay them,” Allen said.
“I would like to continue to use their services. I’ve been with them for so long. I love the services they provide. We are covered. If we were to switch right now, we would have to change emails, which would make a break between us and the taxpayers and the other businesses that we use. That would be a huge hassle. We would probably lose information that we have. We’ve got six years, seven years of archived emails with taxpayers’ property information in there. We also have to protect our cybersecurity. We have taxpayers’ Social Security numbers and their income verifications in our systems, because we deal with their double homesteads, their senior freezes, we have to have those Social Security numbers and verification of their income. You all know we have to keep records for seven-plus years. We keep records for longer than that, because we may have to go back and find something for someone,” she said, making her case for AIS.
The case for AF3
AF3 then attempted to assuage Allen’s concerns.
“We can maintain that the same as AIS does. There’s no difference in that,” Aaron Ferguson said about firewall protection. “They pay a subscription fee for that. We can do that, also. We also provide emails for 64 counties. We provide Office 365 for 49 different counties. Those services we can provide. You’d have that transition and that migration between if you went to those other … but usually you can transfer those over, the domain and those Microsoft accounts.”
David Rivera from AIS then continued the case for AIS, noting that “we’re a Microsoft partner and WatchGuard partner, and he’s accurate, they can support it. But where I purchase the licenses at 78% discounted from where they would find … the office product we sell is lower than MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price). I get that somebody else is paying for it, and your tax dollars are paying for it. I’m just suggesting use those tax dollars somewhere else, because we’re actually the lowest you can find for office products across the state. We’re a complete solution.
“One of the things that we focus on for [Allen’s] office is security. We all know, historically, your biggest leak is going to be email. So being able to host the email and follow the trace and actually see where the email’s originating from, we do a lot of geographical blocking, our info protection integrates with our WatchGuard firewall appliance on premise, so all our systems kind of click and work together. I’m not suggesting that they can’t do that, but we’ve perfected the process and we’ve provided the solution originally and we’ve maintained it well,” Rivera said.
“It’s secure, and we don’t have to worry about it,” Allen added about her confidence in AIS.
But Ferguson countered that “most other counties in the state don’t utilize that high of a level of security,” and said that none of the 64 counties AF3 serves has had a security breach.
And Cornell Cross of AIS agrees.
“Apprentice offers a level [of security] that other offices don’t have, it’s a little higher,” Cross said. “That’s what we’re known for. Straight forwardly, I’m just going to put that out there. We’re never going to be the cheapest option. We’re usually not the most expensive either. We see ourselves as a cybersecurity provider first, then an IT provider, because we do believe that government data should be protected.
“When we came into Oklahoma years ago, the first thing we did was contact the state of Oklahoma and said, ‘What standards should be met? What is the Oklahoma cyber command doing?’ They can’t mandate that. There is no mandate. They can’t tell you, ‘Do what the state does.’ What they will tell you is that if you do get hacked, they’re going to come and say, ‘We can help with remediation,’ but you really need to do whatever you can to meet these standards. That’s why we do hit those standards, and that’s why we do things other providers don’t do in other places. We want people to get to that standard,” Cross said.
Back to basics
Rogers conceded any argument.
“I’m not arguing that, at all,” he told Cross. “I just want justification on why we should spend another $12,000, which your original contract …” “It is $7,800,” Rivera interrupted to correct Rogers.
“He gets paid whether we utilize him or not,” Rogers said, singling out AF3. “This isn’t a competition thing. He won the contract from the state, so he’s already been paid to provide the service for our county. He’s absolutely not here to argue or try to sell his [service]. He has nothing to lose.”
While much of the discussion included à la carte pricing for emails or Microsoft 365 or other programs, District 2 Commissioner Beau Burlison just wanted to see a bottom-line number.
“I would like to see all the fees, everything on the table,” Burlison said.
“I’m just thankful you let us talk,” Cross told the commissioners. “We see ourselves as public servants. We serve the county. We’re just glad to be here and able to talk. I appreciate the time and effort you put into this.”
Rogers then acknowledged the benefit of delving deeper into the inner workings of the assessor’s office.
“This has been a learning experience for us,” Rogers said. “There’s a lot that goes on in that office. I didn’t really realize it until …” “Really?!” Allen bristled.
“I didn’t. Financially, it’s the heartbeat of our county. I’ve learned a lot since a lot of things have transpired here in the past. There’s a lot that goes on in there. So I’m not trying to take away from that.”
Allen’s response? “I would just like to stay with the company that we have.”
Other business
In other business, the commissioners approved:
• A resolution for the 2025-26 renewal of Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (ACCO) self insurance financed workman’s compensation insurance. “With our new insurance, our coverage went from a million up to $1.5 million, so we did increase that by half a million,” Rogers said. Cost for the policy is almost $200,000.
• Renewing a contract between Juvenile Detention Services and Eastern Oklahoma Youth Services and Sequoyah County (Pittsburg County Regional juvenile Detention Center) at $38.97 per child per day.
• Reappointment of Anthony Armstrong as primary tax board representative, with Steve Padgett as secondary to represent Sallisaw Fire Department
• Reappointment of Sheldon Caughman as primary tax board representative, with Bailey Carter as secondary to represent Brushy Fire Department
• Declared as surplus to be recycled four laptops from the Sequoyah County Election Board
• Purchase of a ditch mower with chain guards and side mount gauge wheel for $23,430.52 for District 2
• Purchase of a Kubota 4WDcabtractorforDistrict2
• Transfer of appropriations of $100,000 from District 2 sales tax to sales tax capital outlay for the purchase ofamowerandtractor
• Transfer of appropriations of $4,000 from county assessor’s personal services to maintenance and operations
• Transfer of appropriations of $766.11 from commissioners travel to assessor’s personal service
• Transfer of appropriations of $10,000 from commissioners travel to county general maintenance and operations
• Transfer of appropriations of $3,500 from election board part-time help and election board travel to election board maintenance and operations
