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Sawyer County officials weigh ending $9,000 records-management subscription
Summary
County clerk reported the NextRequest public-records tracking system has not delivered expected benefits; officials agreed to let the clerk manage requests manually and hold a department‑head meeting to implement a low‑cost tracking method.
Sawyer County’s administrative committee discussed whether to renew a $9,000 annual subscription for NextRequest, a public‑records tracking system, and agreed to continue routing requests through the county clerk while exploring manual tracking to save money.
The county clerk told the committee the software “is not the greatest program” after roughly one year of use and said departments are not consistently entering actual staff time into the system. The clerk said the sheriff’s department accounted for 273 entries in the year reviewed, while the clerk’s office had about 50 and Health and Human Services about 30.
The clerk said the vendor now proposes an online payment portal that would increase the cost by another roughly $3,000 plus setup fees; total annual costs could approach $9,000. “It’s a pretty big upgrade that they’re gonna do for free just for the cost of delivering it here,” the clerk said about a different machine swap discussed elsewhere, and contrasted that with NextRequest’s cost and limited usefulness for Sawyer County’s workflow.
Committee members and staff discussed alternatives. One committee member said the original goal of tracking records time was to identify a few high‑volume requesters who were imposing heavy demands. The clerk and staff said the software’s workflow added overhead and that many staff handle small requests quickly and would not use the tool for brief inquiries.
The committee directed the clerk to continue handling public‑records requests and to convene a department‑head meeting so departments can adopt a simple manual folder method to record requests locally if they wish. The clerk said eliminating the current subscription would save the county about $9,000 a year while keeping the clerk as the central point of contact for requests that currently pass through her office.
The discussion distinguished tracking formal, logged electronic requests (which NextRequest captures) from informal contacts by phone or email that the software does not capture unless staff specifically journal them. Committee members noted that if the county wants to track informal contacts reliably it would require assigning the work to staff and create additional overhead.
No formal motion to cancel the subscription was made; the committee’s direction was to proceed at the clerk’s discretion and to hold a department‑head meeting to establish a simple manual tracking process and reporting practice.
