Freestone County staff proposes GovOS partnership for paid open‑record land requests

Freestone County staff proposed a formal agreement with GovOS to manage continuing open‑record requests for land records, saying GovOS would charge customers $6,600 per year and the county would receive $3,300 annually per customer.

County staff described two request types: “bulk” requests (one‑time pulls covering long date ranges) and “open” requests (ongoing deliveries of newly filed records). The proposed GovOS arrangement would cover open requests only; bulk pulls would remain handled separately.

Staff said about seven or eight commercial customers currently pay an annual fee under the county’s existing process. Under the proposed arrangement, GovOS would collect payment directly from customers and remit the county’s share. The clerk’s office staff told the court that longstanding local customers — specifically County Title and Heritage Title — would continue to receive records without charge and that the county will continue to handle those two companies free of charge.

The county listed record types affected as oil‑and‑gas filings, warranty deeds and other land records. Staff described the change as shifting the customer‑billing and delivery workflow to GovOS and making record delivery automated for ongoing requests.

No final vote on the partnership is recorded in the meeting transcript. Staff asked the commissioners to agree to move forward with the GovOS agreement and outlined the revenue figure the county would receive per customer annually.

Meeting discussion noted that the $3,300 annual payment to the county is per customer and that GovOS’s $6,600 annual fee is what customers would be charged for open, ongoing access to newly filed records.