A proposed $2 million, 11.6 percent increase in the Macomb Department of Information Technology budget includes adding an IT employee each to the clerk’s and district attorney’s offices as both become more computerized and replacing hundreds of employee laptops, among others.

Chief Information Officer Jako van Blerk appeared before the County Board of Commissioners’ Financial Audit Budget Committee last month, seeking to increase his department’s allocation from $17.4 million to $19.4 million for 2025.

The proposal will be reviewed by commissioners who are expected to approve the budget later this month.

About $500,000 of the increase would go toward hiring a systems analyst for the clerk’s office and a systems technician for the district attorney’s office to address the ever-increasing use of technology in those departments, as well as standard salary increases.

The position at the clerk’s office, which would be the department’s first dedicated IT employee, would “assist with the planning, testing and implementation of new systems as well as upgrades and, as their business progresses, help them adapt from technologically,” van Blerk told the commissioners.

At the Prosecutor’s Office, a computer systems analyst has been dedicated in recent years due to the dramatic increase in the use of technology under Prosecutor Peter Lucido. Now van Blerk wants to add a systems technician to handle “endpoint” devices like computers, phones and printers.

“The complexity of the prosecutor’s systems requires more dedicated support,” he said.

Van Blerk is also calling for the reinstatement of an old paid intern position, which was one of two such positions dropped in 2020. He said IT benefits from interns as much as interns benefit from working in IT.