Monroe County government offices won’t reopen until Monday, when an unexplained issue with the county’s computer server will hopefully be resolved.
Until then, most county employees are enjoying a full week off. Thursday, July 4, already was a paid holiday.
County attorney Jeff Cockerill said on Tuesday that workers will be paid their regular salaries from county emergency funds and won’t have to use paid-time-off benefits. Jail personnel, sheriff’s department road deputies and youth shelter employees remain on the job.
The issues were identified Monday morning. Soon after, the county commissioners closed down government offices, including the courts, "due to unforeseen circumstances." No one would elaborate.
"At this time, we are not commenting any further until a full analysis of our network and servers is complete," commissioners administrator Angie Purdie wrote in a Tuesday update.
Cockerill said the specific problem is being identified and fixed. The county hired "outside professional help" to assist technical support personnel when the scope and seriousness of the issue became apparent.
Cockerill couldn’t provide many details about the situation with the server. “What I know is our computer network isn’t working correctly and our technical support staff is looking into it.”
The outage affects not only the court system and related offices such as probation, but also the health department, county clerk, election office, auditor, treasurer, assessor and other courthouse-based and off-site offices that serve the public. They are usually open from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Cockerill said it’s unlikely recent storm-related power outages are to blame. He didn’t rule out the possibility of outside sources infiltrating the county’s secure computer network. “There is some concern there may be some bad actor in there, but we can’t identify anything now,” he said.
He said county workers cannot get much work done without use of their computers and data stored on the server. “The bulk of our staff cannot do very much without them.”
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
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