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County clerk seeks streamlined public‑records process and an IT tracking system
Summary
The county clerk and commissioners discussed a new policy and an IT tool to track public-records (sunshine) requests and identify department liaisons to improve response and retention.
County Clerk Paula told the commission she and in‑house counsel are drafting a revised sunshine‑request procedure and that the county plans to develop an internal tracking tool so requests and responses are documented.
"I'm not for sure if those are getting answered. And so it's gonna come back on me that, you know, they weren't answered because I received them," Paula said, explaining why she wants a centralized process and a mechanism to record when other departments respond.
Why it matters: the clerk serves as custodian of records and the county must track responses to public‑records requests to meet statutory requirements and ensure consistent record retention.
Paula said her idea, supported by the county's IT staff, is a system that logs incoming requests, routes them to the appropriate departmental liaison and shows when a response is complete. "John thinks he can build something where when it comes to me, I can forward it to the correct person, and it's all in the kind of the database," Paula said.
Several elected officials and staff discussed the need to identify a point person in each department who can receive and answer requests. Commissioners suggested a roundtable or work‑study session with elected officials, the clerk, IT and in‑house counsel to finalize the policy and the technical solution.
Clerk Paula and an attorney (identified as in‑house counsel Austin) said they were revising the draft policy to ensure compliance with "statutory requirements," and that updates to the county website and a written policy would follow. The clerk said the county has responded to existing requests but that the volume had increased recently and that the new system is intended to reduce repeated follow‑up and preserve records of responses.
No formal policy was adopted at the meeting; commissioners directed staff to schedule a meeting of all affected officials to finalize procedures and to have the clerk circulate the revised draft for review.
