For much of the past nine months, the Sequoyah County Commissioners have expressed their confidence in and expectations for success from County Assessor Brandy Dobbs.

“We want you to have what you need to be successful,” District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers told Dobbs when the commissioners began scrutinizing her in August 2024. District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts added at the time: “We had all the confidence in the world in her — still do.”

That was then, however, and this is now.

Since that first executive session in August 2024 when the commissioners discussed in private Dobbs’ future as county assessor, there have been six more meetings behind closed doors, including the February 12 session when the commissioners decided to move forward with legal action to remove Dobbs from the office she has held since June 2021.

So when Dobbs requested payment Tuesday for a support-only agreement with Apprentice Information Systems (AIS) and the commissioners balked, she challenged the commissioners’ commitment to the success of her office.

“You tell everybody that you want my office to have what we need to be successful,” Dobbs chastised the commissioners, “and here you are, yet again, trying to keep me from doing that.”

But Rogers stuck to his guns.

“You’re missing my point,” he retorted. “The board didn’t sign off on this contract, Brandy. At the time that we discussed all this, we were going to visit with AF3, see where we’re at.”

Dobbs reminded the commissioners that she did reach out to Aaron Ferguson III and AF3 Technical Solutions (AF3), “but I never could get anything in writing,” she said. “I just didn’t trust what he is saying without having something [tangible].”

But Rogers renewed his commitment to the county assessor.

“I want you to have what you need to run your office,” he told Dobbs.

“This, we need,” she contended, reaffirming her trust in AIS. “We need it.”

Cybersecurity

The question of AIS or AF3 was raised during the commissioners’ weekly meeting when Dobbs requested payment of more than $7,000 to AIS for cybersecurity support provided to the county assessor’s office for the past year.

“I had gotten this contract approved with [Assistant District Attorney] Andy [Williams] last July, and we had tabled it for a little bit because I was trying to find out some other information from some other sources,” Dobbs reminded the commissioners. “We are on a support-only agreement right now, and I would like for you guys to please approve that so we can pay them for the support that they’ve given us this last year.”

But Rogers asked Dobbs if AF3 also provides cybersecurity.

“Not for free,” Dobbs said.

“They (AF3) do not provide the level of cybersecurity that Apprentice provides,” Dobbs added.

“What’s the difference in the level of cybersecurity?” Rogers probed.

“Our cybersecurity measures meet or exceed the state’s recommended levels for government offices in state, county and city levels,” Cornell Cross from AIS told the commissioners. Cross said in the past 45 days, AIS firewalls have protected the assessor’s office from “a number of different types of attacks … including eight intrusion attempts that we were able to stop.”

“An intrusion is basically something trying to break into your home, in a sense. It’s best to think of cybersecurity sort of like having a digital sheriff’s office for whoever it’s being used for,” Cross explained. “That’s what we do. We are the sheriff’s office or the assessor’s office, in the digital sense. We’ve been doing that for five, six years now, for them.”

But Rogers was not swayed.

“Why does their office need extra security when the other offices don’t?” he asked Cross. “And if yours actually meets or exceeds state recommendations, why would the state program not have to meet the same expectations?

“I don’t mind paying for something that is going to be beneficial, but when it’s provided for free, by the state,” Rogers said.

But Dobbs claimed AIS does “so much more … that we use on a daily basis. It’s pertinent to what we do. All of our emails, our Microsoft Word, our Microsoft 365, that whole package. They make sure that all of that works. We use Excel, we use Word. Apprentice has worked with us for years. We trust them.”

AIS has been in business since 2019, and “the county assessor’s office was actually the second contract we had in the state of Oklahoma,” Cross told Rogers.

Action tabled

Then Rogers returned to the root of his problem.

“My biggest problem with this is we didn’t approve this contract. The board didn’t sign off on this contract, but we still utilized your services, without board approval,” he said.

Watts noted that any contract, and therefore any payment, would have to be approved by the District Attorney’s office.

“He approved it last July,” Dobbs reminded the commissioners.

“He approved it, but we didn’t approve it,” Watts retorted.

“Well, I want to renew that same contract for this next fiscal year, too,” Dobbs said.

Rogers recommended that no action be taken regarding payment to AIS, and to get input from both AF3 and AIS before proceeding.

“We deal with the budget every year. And last year, we were $400,000 shy of what we got the previous year. So it’s getting tougher and tougher to do that. My deal is, is I don’t want to wastefully spend one penny if we can keep from doing that. If we can sit down and we can have a civil conversation and show us, in black and white, where this is going to be advantageous for your office to succeed. That’s all I’m asking,” Rogers said before the agenda item was tabled.

Following the meeting, Dobbs further explained her cybersecurity concerns.

“I’d rather be proactive and have good cybersecurity than not have it and be compromised. We have private information in our system that is not public record. For instance, Social Security numbers, income verification and business/personal information,” she said.

“The contract with OSU/CLGT (Oklahoma State University and the Center for Local Government Technology) states that AF3 is not responsible for any cybersecurity or software and hardware issues. Information technology is free under AF3 until something happens, then you pay. That’s my understanding anyhow.”

Dobbs, who now goes by Brandy Allen, has served in the county assessor’s office for eight years, the first five as a deputy in that office before being promoted to the top position.