{"id":151046,"date":"2026-01-27T04:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/151046\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T04:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T04:14:08","slug":"supervisors-propose-7-million-annual-cost-saving-comms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/151046\/","title":{"rendered":"Supervisors propose $7 million annual cost-saving comms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Fountains outside the San Diego County Administration Building. (Photo courtesy of County News Center) <\/p>\n

San Diego County Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe unveiled a proposal Monday to modernize county communications technology and save taxpayers up to $7 million annually.<\/p>\n

The proposal, to be heard at Wednesday\u2019s Board of Supervisors<\/a> meeting, is the first formal action of the board\u2019s Fiscal Subcommittee. It is intended to respond to significant cuts in federal funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we face looming federal and state funding cuts, saving taxpayer dollars means county government must find innovative ways to do more with less,\u201d said Montgomery Steppe, the board\u2019s vice chair. \u201cBy modernizing our communications systems, we\u2019re redirecting millions of dollars each year back into our communities \u2014 and accelerating a change that delivers lasting, long-term impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal \u201cbuilds on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d a statement from the supervisors read, when the county quickly adopted mobile and software-based tools to keep the government running as the pandemic disrupted daily life.<\/p>\n

During that time, traditional ways the county government was able to communicate both with residents and in intragovernmental ways were maintained along with the new tools to ensure continuity. After several years of data, the supervisors said the new tools may be a more cost-effective way of running the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Washington cuts healthcare and food assistance, counties don\u2019t have the luxury of inaction,\u201d said Lawson-Remer, the board chair. \u201cWe\u2019re unlocking savings, modernizing how government works, forging new partnerships, and protecting services for San Diegans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The largest item the supervisors propose changing is San Diego County\u2019s \u201clegacy phone platform,\u201d with fixed annual expenses no matter how frequently it is used. They said completing a transition to software-based tools for communications could allow the county to retire the older system and save those costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cCounty staff estimate the proposal could generate up to $7 million in ongoing annual savings, building on savings already achieved through mobile-only configurations and device optimization,\u201d a statement from Montgomery Steppe and Lawson-Remer\u2019s offices read. \u201cThe proposal maintains public access to county services and operational reliability, with clear exception processes where legacy systems remain necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the proposal, county staff would be limited to just one phone line, land-lines and physical phones would be replaced with \u201csoft phones\u201d using software, unused devices would be returned and physical fax machines would be phased out.<\/p>\n

The board has docketed the proposal for a vote at its Wednesday meeting.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fountains outside the San Diego County Administration Building. (Photo courtesy of County News Center) San Diego County Supervisors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74696,74697,21522,74,14842,76,75,43043],"class_list":["post-151046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-7-million","tag-communications-technology","tag-monica-montgomery-steppe","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county-board-of-supervisors","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-terra-lawson-remer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}