ADP Approves Cybersecurity Program
ADP Board Meeting - September 9, 2025
Meeting Details: The Automatic Data Processing Board (ADP) held a Regular Meeting at 2:00 pm on September 9, 2025 in the Geauga County Auditor’s Office Appraisal Conference Room at 231 Main St., Chardon, OH 44024. Virtual access was available via MS Teams, and the agenda was provided in advance. Members of the public may attend ADP meetings virtually via MS Teams by emailing an invitation request to Auditor’s Office Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov. This Observer attended via MS Teams.
Public Comment: ADP does not have a written public comment policy. In practice, public comment is solicited at the end of the meeting.
Board Attendance:
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Auditor/Chief Administrator – Charles Walder
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Clerk of Courts – Sheila Bevington
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County Commissioner – Carolyn Brakey
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Engineer – Andy Haupt
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Board of Elections – Michelle Lane and Nora McGinnis
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County Prosecutor – Jim Flaiz
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Recorder – Mike Risko for Celesta Mullins
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Sheriff – Scott Hildenbrand
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Treasurer – Caroline Mansfield for Chris Hitchcock
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Coroner – John Urbancic (absent)
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Common Pleas Court Judge - Observer Note - It was stated at the January 28, 2025 meeting that this seat will not be filled.
ADP Staff Attendance:
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Frank Antenucci – Chief Deputy Administrator
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Tracy Rahimi - Help Desk Clerk (virtual)
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Zach McLeod - Information Security Manager
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Joe Birli - Physical Security Analyst
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Karen Murphy - Director, Archives & Records
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Mike Dorka
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Rob Bushman
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Rocco Alberino (virtual)
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Mike Adams (virtual)
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Jeremiah Snider (virtual)
Reviewer Note: ADP restructured into three groups earlier this year: Department of Advanced Technology and Applications (DATA), Department of Advanced Research & Cybersecurity (DARC) and Department of County Archives and Records Enterprise (CARE). More information on this restructuring is available in the March 4, 2025 ADP Observer Report.
Other Government Representatives:
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Linda Applebaum - Prosecutor’s Office
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Matt Rambo - Court of Common Pleas Judge
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Carolyn Paschke - Court of Common Pleas Judge
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Velta Moisio - Court of Common Pleas IT Director
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Thomas Huff - Court of Common Pleas, IT Officer (virtual)
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Kate Jacobs - Chief Compliance Officer, Auditor’s Office (virtual)
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Pam McMahan - Chief Operations Officer, Auditor’s Office
Others Present:
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 pm by Mr. Antenucci.
Minutes: Minutes for the April 28, 2025, May 27, 2025, and June 18, 2025 Special Meetings were approved as amended.
The Board took the following actions:
APPROVED - ADP expense report list from May 1, 2025 to July 31, 2025.
APPROVED - ADP equipment list from May 1, 2025 to July 31, 2025.
APPROVED - Tyler Technologies Annual Renewal ($326,220) - Mr. Antenucci explained that this was the standard licensing renewal for Tyler Technologies New World ERP (enterprise resource planning) software modules in the county’s environment and licensing for the 6 to 8 on premises servers still in place supporting the system. He reminded the Board that they shifted to a hosted version of the environment in May 2025 but have retained both environments for a period of time to iron out any issues.
At this point, Mr. Walder noted that Allen Keener, ADP’s Chief Technology Officer, who was very involved in the transition of Tyler Technologies to the cloud, will be retiring effective December 31, 2025. ADP will host an open house and lunch in honor of Mr. Keener at the Geauga County Office Building on October 27, 2025 from 12:00 to 2:00 pm. He encouraged Board members to attend or to send a representative. Mr. Walder noted Mr. Keener will be on vacation for most of the remainder of the year using the vacation time he accrued. Observer Note: There was no discussion regarding a replacement for Mr. Keener.
APPROVED - Blue Ridge Network Backups, Disaster Recovery and Patch Management ($151,200) - Mr. Antenucci explained that in the past few years ADP has transitioned from on-premises tape backup to a hosted dump backup site. The tapes are then stored in the cloud in the event they are needed. In light of recent ransomware attacks around the state, ADP wanted a solution that would enable them to replicate the core county’s operations more quickly and efficiently, in approximately two days' time. Blue Ridge, based in Cleveland, has data centers in Columbus and Cleveland and the ability to provide redundancy and a full disaster recovery option. Mr. Walder noted that this is a change in strategy providing total isolation in which to reconstruct the environment if ever needed. Mr. Antenucci explained that the cost is $30,000 higher than the cost of the current structure due to the additional capabilities provided.
APPROVED - Clerk of Courts Equivant Software Support ($61,161) - Judge Paschke explained that this charge was actually split between Clerk of Courts ($22,594) and Court of Common Pleas ($38,567) and the invoice was submitted for payment on June 16, 2025. The Clerk of Courts portion was paid. The remainder of the invoice is now past due and the service will expire in September. Mr. Walder noted that the partial invoice was paid in error since ADP had not approved the technology. He stated that even though this particular invoice was for a renewal, approval is still required since ADP’s standards, particularly around cybersecurity, change periodically. Clarifications to the approval and payment process were discussed, including ADP’s plans to remind the fiscal officers in the various departments of its approval requirements. Judge Rambo noted that the Equivant software (Courtview) is the Common Pleas Court’s case management tool. Both Judge Rambo and Paschke expressed a desire to move away from the on-premise server based tool and move to a cloud-based tool but noted the lack of available options.
APPROVED - Treasurer’s Records Retention Schedule RC-2 - Ms. Murphy explained the updated Treasurer’s retention schedule, and it was then approved by the Board.
APPROVED - Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 9.64 Compliance Cybersecurity Program - Mr. Antenucci explained that the Ohio Legislature passed new legislation, the key portion of which was codified in ORC 9.64 going into effect on September 30, 2025 mandating that no political subdivision in the state can pay ransom in response to a ransomware incident, unless the Ohio Legislature votes to approve it in open session. The other parts of the new cybersecurity requirements, including mandatory cybersecurity training, policies regarding cybersecurity, etc., have already been put in place by ADP. County-level compliance is required by January 1, 2026. Township-level compliance is required by July 1, 2026. ADP will provide its framework to the townships if they choose not to come under the ADP service umbrella. Mr. Walder stated that he feels “embracing this is the smart approach because it’s coming like a freight train.” Mr. Antenucci explained that they will formalize and combine existing policies on multi-factor authentication (MFA) and long passwords, cybersecurity awareness, reporting cybersecurity incidents, acceptable use, standard cybersecurity, and endpoint quarantine policies into a compliance document. He also noted that cybersecurity policies and documents are exempt from public disclosure. State auditors will include the requirements for these policies, etc. as a part of their regular audits. Mr. Antenucci noted that after approval of the ADP Board, the program will be provided to the Board of County Commissioners for approval. Observer Note: The Board of County Commissioners approved the program on September 30, 2025.
Executive Session - At 2:37 pm a motion to adjourn to Executive Session for the purpose of considering “details relative to the security arrangements and emergency response protocols for a public body or a public office, if disclosure of the matters discussed could reasonably be expected to jeopardize the security of the public body or public office pursuant to R.C. 121.22(G)(6)” was approved. The Board, Mr. Antenucci, Ms. McMahan, and the ADP security team were included. The Board returned at 3:27 pm and reported that no action would be taken.
Regular Business:
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APPROVED - Clerk of Courts and the Court of Common Pleas for equipment upgrades - $15,452, and the annual technical support entitlement renewal for LiveScan, a biometric information second fingerprint reader at the court - $2,166.
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DISCUSSED - Geauga Public Health HDIS (a Lake County proprietary ERP system) replacement, HS Cloud Suite, was approved by the Board in April in the amount of $60,000. Mr. Antenucci made the Board aware that a second invoice for $5,000 was presented for an addition to the initial solution. ADP will vet the invoice before approving payment. Mr. Antenucci noted that the implementation was going well.
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APPROVED - Unblocking of County Engineers Association of Ohio (CEAO) Domain - Mr. Antenucci provided background to the CEAO incident originating at a conference in Columbus that had wide-ranging impact throughout the state. He said that ADP has been working with CEAO as they remedied the situation. CEAO completed the Unblock Form ADP requires, and Mr. McLeod explained that no issues have been noted since the initial incident. Observer Note: See ADP’s summary of this incident here.
Public Comment: Mr. Antenucci asked for any public comment/questions. This Observer asked if the cybersecurity program would be explained to the Boards overseeing the entities ADP supports. Mr. Antenucci responded that it would be.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:38 pm.
Next Meeting: The next scheduled meeting of the ADP Board is a Regular Meeting on December 9, 2025. Observer Note: Before this report was published, a Special Meeting was called for September 25, 2025 at 10:00 am.
Minutes when posted are available here: Meeting Minutes | Geauga County Automatic Data Processing
Virtual Meeting Information: Contact Pamela McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Observer: Carol Benton
Editor: Rooney Moy
Reviewer: Sarah McGlone
Submitted: October 5, 2025
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