MAPLETON – Karl Jeffreys has joined Mapleton staff as the township’s first IT manager.
Finance director Patrick Kelly welcomed Jeffreys during a regular meeting of council on Jan. 28, describing him as “knowledgable, capable and motivated” and noting he “joins us with expertise and experience from both the public sector and private sector.”
Jeffreys worked for Wilmot Township as IT supervisor from 2013 until 2025. Prior to that, he was a senior network consultant for Compugen, where he said his clients included Sleeman Breweries, Research in Motion (RIM) and education boards.
Jeffreys expressed excitement about joining the Mapleton team and said “after being here for a few weeks I can see there’s much to do.”
The new role was included in Mapleton’s 2025 budget, with a levy impact of $93,768.
Township staff are set to explore the possibility of sharing this position with another municipality in the future.
“Over the past few years, the township has experienced an increasing number of network shutdowns due to technical issues,” stated a November 2024 staff report about the budget.
The new position will enable the township to respond more effectively to network outages, develop an IT master plan and disaster recovery plan, and create a cyber security strategy, it continues.
“We have reached a point where IT management is critical to ensuring the continuity of services both for staff here and for the community that use those services,” Kelly told the Advertiser last year.
“Given the recent modernization efforts through the deployment of IT software (such as CloudPermit) the stability and reliability of IT services at the township are more critical than ever.”
Councillor Michael Martin said, “It certainly seems that there is a great rationale for this particular position. Especially as the world evolves into even more reliance on this stuff, having the in-house support system seems to make a lot of sense.”
According to a Mapleton job posting for the position, the salary ranges from $96,178 to $108,250 for 35 hours per week.
The role includes “procurement, deployment, documentation and maintenence of all technology in use for the township.
“The IT manager is expected to keep the township’s technology running in an efficient and secure manner while maintaining reasonable expenditures relating to the use of technology in the township,” the posting continues.
Jeffreys is also expected to develop and maintain a “complete detailed inventory of all corporate hardware, operating systems and applications, including condition assessments and an optimal replacement schedule.”
His role includes diagnosing and resolving or escalating network, workstation, operating system and application issues on a wide range of hardware and software including networks, servers, operating systems and applications while adhering to service level requirements.
