Traverse City Light & Power is pursuing separating the utility's and city's IT services from those of Grand Traverse County after it was revealed earlier this week that a database critical to the county's 2017 budget was deleted internally - and that the county didn't know how it happened, who removed the file or whether the act was intentional.

TCL&P Executive Director Tim Arends told board members in a memo Thursday he wanted to pursue breaking off from the county's IT services. "I have a meeting on Friday with the City Treasurer and City Manager to further discuss this issue," Arends wrote, "and my concerns of the viability of GT County supporting City and TCL&P IT services going forward."

Arends noted in the memo that the county's missing database was "an isolated incident that only impacted Grand Traverse County" and that the program was "only used by the county, not used by TCL&P or the city." He also revealed that more than one former county IT employee is now contracting with TCL&P "to assist in the integrity of our billing, collections, general ledger and payroll systems." Arends stated he spoke with those employees about County Administrator Tom Menzel's suggestion that the database could have been purposely deleted by a disgruntled staff member, and told board members that "no former county IT staff...have had any access to the system since their leaving the county's employ."

Despite the deleted file only affecting Grand Traverse County, Arends said IT staff contracting with TCL&P were helping the utility prepare "a plan to migrate city and TCL&P services to TCL&P currently hosted on GT County servers." Arends said the plan "will require all to be 'on board' to maintain the financial benefits for taxpayers and TCL&P ratepayers."

"We will keep you all updated," Arends' memo to the board concluded. "I wanted all of you to know that we view recent events as a 'major' concern and are working toward a resolution in the best interests of the residents and customers of this fine city."