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Lebanon City Council reviews $53,300 plan to digitize planning records
Summary
Lebanon City Council members discussed a planning department request to contract with Document Mountain to scan and host historic planning documents for $53,300 from the non-reverting fund. Councilors questioned file format, public access and security; no formal vote was recorded.
The Lebanon City Council discussed a planning department request Feb. 24 to contract with Document Mountain to scan and host the city’s historical planning records, a project the presenter said would cost $53,300 from the city’s non-reverting fund for 2025.
Christie Spencer, identified in the meeting as planning department staff, told the council the project would digitize about 10 file cabinets of permits, plans, surveys and plan commission documents — some dating to the 1990s and moved multiple times over the past 20 years — to create searchable PDF files and provide off-site hosting.
The proposal matters because staff said the current paper-based storage consumes extra staff time and complicates retrieval. "We need to find a more permanent storage for these records and also, in a format that is searchable so that we can find the information when we need it," Spencer said. She described the project as a pilot for the planning department that could later be extended to other departments if it proves successful.
Council members asked technical and access questions. Sandra Jasonowski, a council member, asked whether the files would go on microfiche; Spencer replied, "No. It's not. It is actually a PDF document that they will create and they have demonstrated it for us." Spencer said the vendor scans physical documents after the city packs them and returns the originals, and that the vendor also hosts the scanned files in an off-site data center so staff could search by address and pull related records.
Spencer said the records slated for digitization are public records and the city does not plan to retain sensitive personal data such as Social Security numbers. "We do not keep private personal information for our residents that come in and get permits or applications," she said. The presenter said the vendor described firewalls and off-site storage as part of its security measures.
Council members also discussed access. Spencer said the files would not initially be publicly accessible online but the public could request copies from the planning office. The clerk/treasurer's office and other departments were mentioned as possible future users; council members noted that police records are more sensitive and would require careful review before any migration.
A cost question about whether other departments would face additional fees if they later joined the service was raised near the end of the discussion but was not answered on the record.
No motion or vote on the contract was recorded in the transcript excerpt. The item was presented as new business and described as a pilot; next steps beyond the council discussion were not stated in the recorded segment.
