Montgomery staff seek funds to scan city records, expand cloud services amid missing files concerns

City of Montgomery staff presented a proposal in the June 9 workshop to spend roughly $39,000 next fiscal year on records-scanning, retention and related cloud services as part of a move toward a paperless system. Staff member Mary Anne said the plan includes scanning existing paper files into the city’s Laserfiche system, ongoing cloud access fees and shredding and hard-drive destruction services.

The request matters because city records include personnel files and development plans that council members said have been used to resolve past problems. “We are looking at having a move in the next year for city hall, and we have a lot of records on file,” Staff member Mary Anne said, describing separate quotes of about $16,000 to scan administration records and $18,100 to scan development documents. She added the city would pay an annual portal fee of about $600. For on‑site shredding and records management staff requested $5,000 and listed Iron Mountain pickups at about $1,200 and hard‑drive destruction at about $800, which together were presented as part of a roughly $39,000 line in the draft budget.

Council members pressed staff on safeguards after past discoveries of missing personnel files. “I wanna make sure that every piece of information gets put in there,” a council member said, describing items that exist on paper but not on local hard drives. Staff noted Laserfiche can be configured to prevent deletion and to log who accesses records. Mary Anne said the city can retain hard copies for a transition hold period — she suggested holding originals for three years after scanning — and that the vendor provides proof-of-destruction documentation when records are shredded under state standards.

Staff described alternatives and follow-up steps. Mary Anne said the city will audit boxes before scanning to reduce the volume moved, and she offered to request that RCI scan records but return hard copies to the city and hold them for a multi‑year period if council prefers. IT staff member Ruby explained that while much can move to the cloud, some local server capacity will still be required for certain functions and that a smaller replacement server was quoted at about $20,200 if the city does not transition everything.

Council members asked for additional assurances and a clear inventory before destruction. Staff acknowledged they have identified seven missing personnel files previously and said RCI will only scan what the city supplies; the vendor would not know about missing boxes unless the city flags them. Mary Anne said the vendor provides box tagging, records-coding and proof of destruction aligned with state requirements.

The workshop discussion did not include a formal vote on the records items; staff said they would return with more detail and possible staged options (scan-and-retain hard copies for a set time) for council consideration.