The Ceres City Council approved a lease agreement for desktop computers from Hewlett Packard during last week's meeting.

City computers were getting too old, said Farren Williams, the city's IT technician, and noted that budget problems in the past years didn't allow their replacement. For a cost of $23,520 the city hired DataPath Technology Services to assess the city's IT equipment and make recommendations for newer systems.

Deputy City Manager Sheila Cumberland said that with the exception of computers in City Hall and a few in the police department, the city's aging desktop PCs are five to seven years old and beginning to fail and are in need of replacement. She also noted that the city is in a "position where we are experiencing equipment failure and may soon experience data loss." In addition, the city's computers run the Windows XP as their operating system and Microsoft has announced that it will not provide security updates for Windows XP beyond April 8.

On March 24 the council held off on the lease, preferring to see a fair market lease over a capital lease for 72 desk top computers for use in planning, engineering, public works, recreation and public safety departments.

The proposed four-year lease will cost $101,941. Four annual payments of $25,485 will be made.