OSAGE COUNTY —Remote Computer Services (RCS) owner Eric Reichel was present at Thursday morning’s commission meeting, along with representatives from nearly all elected officials’ offices, to discuss the migration of the county’s email address to a consolidated .gov account managed by RCS.

Currently, most elected officials use generic email addresses set up for their office on services like Hotmail or Google or use personal email addresses. Reichel cited both the increased need for cybersecurity and the need to have access to past emails for Sunshine Law requests as pressing reasons for the change.

As it is, if an elected official leaves and does not provide the password to the email address they have been using, the county will no longer have access to the emails in that person’s account for the following elected official to use. If an elected official using a private email account (or their employee) were to delete an email or the whole account, that information would be lost. It should be made clear that this is a potential problem, though not one Osage County has encountered. However, Reichel said other counties have had issues with it.

Commissioners voted to proceed with the change, which will take place as soon as the .gov account has been confirmed, at a cost of $45 per email address per month for approximately 18 addresses. That cost includes Microsoft Office 365, which the county previously purchased for each new laptop at a cost of roughly $300 each, and which some offices are already on a monthly subscription for, as well as additional cybersecurity measures. Reichel noted now would be the most cost-effective time to make the change, with new elected officials coming aboard and several new laptops recently purchased or to be purchased in the near future.

Commissioners voted to pay for the first year out of Use Tax funds since this cost was not included in the elected officials’ 2025 budgets, then to reassess during 2026 budget meetings.

The Health Department, 911, and the Sheriff’s Office are already on secure networks managed by RCS, so the change will not affect them at this time.

Concerns were raised as to the internet speed in the Annex building as well, which is currently 50 Mbps (download). Commissioners voted to increase the speed to 100 Mbps for approximately $100 more per month. The cost of internet service for the Annex building will continue to be split between the offices in the building.

Recorder Cindy Hoffman told commissioners that she mailed the grant application for $20,000 to refurbish as many more books as possible on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

New Commission Clerk Brandy Boessen began work last week.

Commissioners will not meet on Thursday, Feb. 27, as they will be at the County Commissioners Association of Missouri (CCAM) commissioner training.