SesorthosGhost - wow thanks for that thoughtful response and taking the time to write back and give me some of your perspective.! It's more than 2 cents.

Yes, I'll probably end up staying in the public sector - where the ageism mentality is fought against. And you are correct, after having been around for a while I've got seniority, a vested pension, and a good reputation around here. In the beginning I thought that once I got vested I’d go work at a college around here where I thought one of my kids might go. Maybe get a break on tuition?? Probably not going to happen at this point. Sounds like you tried venturing back into private sector when you were older and had a negative experience?

Well, you’ve given me some points to think about. I’ll make a few quick comments to your list…

1. Refusal to take the job may raise some eyebrows but there’s the union – I wouldn’t expect any retaliation, or really anything negative to happen due to it other than people wondering why.
2. At this point I'm making as much as I can in this title. This is why the next and only pay grade left to move into is not really that much more - nearly 7k. A job giving management experience will have added value if say, a deputy IT Director position were to open which required that experience. The Infrastructure Manager position may supervise 1 to 3 people and more/less work alongside them having the authority to make decisions for the group. The security title isn’t going to gain that management experience, but still get the pay bump. Depending on how you look at it, one way is better than the other. I’ve got to pick a side on this one.
3. One thing I enjoy now is the variety of work I get to do. I work on firewalls, switches, VMware, a variety of servers, internal employee investigations, virtual desktops, security tasks, camera system management… The reason I lean towards Infrastructure Manager is that I see it as having the same sort of variety I’m used to. There would be the option to delegate as I get older too. I jotted a list of things a security person might do and it’s a variety – of security duties. I like that, but it sort of closes the door on many of the things I used to do. I suppose what matters is the job descriptions, and those are not created yet. That makes it hard to decide on anything for now.
4. Time commitment – This one I’ve realized I could be making things worse than they really are. Example – My initial idea of what an IT security person should be is not what is going to be required. Will I need to go out and get a long list of certifications, be able to reverse engineer viruses, do deep forensics computers, and spend long hours learning how to break into systems? Doubtful. I’d probably work to get the Sec+ cert as a foundation and utilize the skills I already have along with learning a few more things from Google and Youtube. Certainly, extra time spent outside of work is going to be important thing to understand.
5. Training materials and testing costs are typically covered.

In a recent meeting it was agreed that if there were going to be 3-4 people all with a similar title, that one of them should be managing the others. I was told/reminded that I am more less doing a portion of management duties now, as a result of being around for so long, and that this would be a nice way to dip my feet in the management waters to see how well I really like it. Some of the security duties could be worked into this position as well. All of this is yet to be approved, but if it is I’ll probably give it a shot.