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County to buy social‑media archiving software to comply with open‑records requirements, staff says
Summary
Public affairs staff recommended a social‑media archiving subscription to capture posts and deleted comments from official county accounts to meet Alabama open-records obligations; the service is included in the budget and staff called it the most cost‑effective option they identified.
County public‑affairs staff recommended purchasing social‑media archiving software to ensure compliance with Alabama open‑records law and to capture deleted comments on county posts.
Summary: Cody Clark, manager of public affairs, told commissioners the software will archive posts and comments from county Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts — including deleted comments and live-stream content — so the county can respond to public-records requests even if a user deletes a comment.
Why it matters: County staff said Alabama open‑records law treats certain social‑media content as public records. The archiving tool would preserve a searchable repository of posts, comments and live videos and store the archived records in a cloud system staff can access to fulfill records requests.
Details and budget: Clark said the subscription is included in the county budget and that the product he recommended was the most cost‑effective solution he found. Commissioners asked whether the software captures live streams and Clark confirmed it archives live production and stores records for unlimited internal access for fulfilling public‑records requests.
Outcome and next steps: Staff recommended moving forward and said the purchase is in the budget; the item will appear on the formal agenda for approval. No formal vote was taken during the information session.
Ending: Commissioners asked staff to keep them informed about data‑retention and access policies as part of the vendor contract review.
