Joe Pregler’s first month as CIO in Dubuque, Iowa, includes moving the city into modernized data centers, integrating artificial intelligence and hiring new security personnel.
The longtime staff have worked in Dubuque’s IT department since 2001 when they joined as IT specialists following news releases. In April 2023, he was appointed the city’s first Chief Information Technology Security Officer, setting up mandatory cyber training, phishing simulation program, vulnerability scanning and password manager programs. Pregler was promoted to interim CIO in March and permanently promoted in April.
His tenure gave him considerable perspective on his hometown, its unique features and the growing need for IT services for residents and city employees.
“We’ve just finished building a new data center, so we’ll actually move our offices and then move our server rooms. The main room here is basically in the basement of an old funeral home and heads to the state-of-the-art data center,” Pregler says.
The move not only provides modern facilities, but also moves critical systems and staff from the flood plains along the Mississippi River. Located in the convergence of Illinois, Illinois and Wisconsin, Dubuque’s location poses both opportunities and risks, the CIO said. The city’s new data center will enhance its resilience and bring IT departments and 911 dispatches under one roof. Dubuque’s 13-person IT team supports a city with around 776 staff and around 59,000 residents.
The new CIO’s priorities are to develop citywide AI policies as employees want to use it and vendors integrate its capabilities into the platform.
“We adopted Microsoft Copilot for internal use, and we’re in the middle of creating an AI policy for that,” he said. “Once you get it, we start to deploy it. I think the frontline staff of the admins are very interested in using it first. So we deploy it first, see how we use it and do a lot of testing with them.”
Dubuque has incident response plans and cybersecurity insurance, but information security remains a certain concern. Staying within budgets requires careful prioritization, says the shift traditionally providing assessment and technical assistance, particularly as support from federal agencies such as cybersecurity and infrastructure security agencies. Authorities are working on job openings for security guard roles and intend to start hiring in the coming weeks, he said.
Dubuque continues to invest in public tools that support transparency and utility management. “We want our citizens to understand the budget process and understand the budgets that are on the rise with tax,” Pregler said.
The city’s website offers access to the smart water platform, which allows items budgets, vendor spending, and residents to track usage and receive leak alerts away. These are examples of how you can provide everyday value while building long-term trust.
