Some services still offline as network issues continue for St. Lucie County, tax collector
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Nearly two weeks after websites, servers and devices first went offline, St. Lucie County is still in the process of getting things back online.
Though the county government website was back up and running last week, some network issues remain, particularly at the Tax Collector's Office, according to county officials and county Tax Collector Chris Craft.
Issues at tax collector's office
The tax collector's three offices still do not have full internet access, Craft said.
"Our internet has not been restored yet to Fort Pierce or Walton Road. The Tradition office is able to be disconnected from the rest of the network, so it's standing alone right now," Craft said. "We're trying to have (Tradition) up, we're hoping by this weekend, if not Monday, and then we'll run 12-hour days Monday through Friday, maybe Monday through Saturday, beginning next week."
There is no timeline for full service to be restored at the other two offices, Craft said, as testing cannot begin until internet is restored.
Some functions still available
The network issues have not completely taken the tax collector's services offline, however. Craft said staff still is able to issue driver's license and registration renewals, take tax payments and do work with car dealers. Craft said his staff is still seeing about 300 people per day using mobile units in parking lots, and he encouraged anyone needing assistance to make an appointment through the tax collector's website.
"Our core business is driver's license, registration renewals and property tax," Craft said.
The Tax Collector's Office still is unable to process transactions such as title transfers, plate transfers and business and bed taxes.
Residents needing title work completed can have it processed by tax collector's offices in Martin and Indian River counties, Craft said, but he encourages anyone who can to wait to do so.
"If they can wait a week or two, please do," Craft said.
More: St. Lucie County government website now back online after five-day network interruption
More: St. Lucie County government offices affected by network disruptions; Tax Collector closes
Investigations ongoing
Forensic investigators are still looking into the cause of the outage, which county spokesperson Erick Gill has said was due to "an abundance of caution" after "suspicious activity" was noticed by staff. Craft said those investigations are ongoing, but the risk of exposing taxpayers' personal information is low.
"We plan on being absolutely as transparent as possible once this is all over and explain to the public," Craft said. "What I want to make sure we reinforce to the community is the vast majority of the sensitive data we collect is not stored locally."
The places where those sensitive pieces of information, like Social Security, tax ID or driver's license numbers, are stored have "not had any activity whatsoever," Craft said.
Once the Tradition office is back online, Craft said the Walton Road Tax Collector's Office may close in order to consolidate resources where things are working well.
Most county functions back online
At offices overseen by the county commissioners, Gill confirmed Tuesday, most systems were back online, with progress, such as restoration of phone lines, being made at others. More than 1,000 individual devices had to be taken offline, investigated and brought back online, Gill said.
The cause of the outage has not yet been identified, Gill said. If any sensitive information was compromised, the county is required to notify the public, he said.
The county announced in a news release Thursday that it would close its public information call line, which fielded more than 700 calls since it was put into service nearly two weeks ago.
Wicker Perlis is TCPalm's Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com and 504-331-0516.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Hear from St. Lucie County tax collector about ongoing network issues
