Kootenai County staff outline records-request software, estimate $15,000 annual cost

Kootenai County commissioners heard a presentation Oct. 7 on adopting a centralized public records request management system intended to speed responses, track staff time and produce searchable, page-counted PDFs for public requests.

Jennifer Locke, Kootenai County clerk, told commissioners the county has been examining a software used by Ada County, Bonneville County, the City of Coeur d'Alene, the Idaho State Police and the Idaho Secretary of State to bring “continuity efficiencies between departments and system tracking time spent on request.” Locke said the system includes keyword routing to direct citizen requests to the correct department, assignment and notification workflows for staff, and the ability to accept online payments when advance payment is required.

Grant Kinsey, a county staff member who spoke about cost and technical features, said the vendor can parse PST email files and provide an accurate page count for emails and attachments, convert outputs to PDF on the fly and offers unlimited cloud storage. “They’re looking at a $15,000 operating costs, per year,” Kinsey said, adding startup costs are roughly the same order of magnitude. Kinsey said the vendor is FedRAMP-certified and that the county could “piggyback” on a state contract with an apparent discount.

Michelle, identified during the meeting as a representative of the Sheriff’s Office, described operational benefits for law enforcement records: quicker electronic responses for large files and integrated redaction tools that can identify personal data. “It’s a win win, not only for, you know, our agency, but for the public. Being able to send an electronic response will be life changing,” Michelle said, adding that built-in redaction and AI assistance could reduce missed personally identifiable information in releases.

Presenters said the system would address current limits on email attachments (which can bounce for large file sizes), remove the need to ship material on physical media for large requests, and let staff re-use prior responses to similar or duplicate requests. Staff described the ability to apply legal holds and to partition long-term retention of material that must be preserved for litigation while keeping routine email retention settings in place for other content.

Cost details provided at the meeting included an estimated $15,000 annual subscription tied to county population and roughly $15,000 in one-time startup fees to configure department-specific request forms; additional per-form setup fees (presenters said roughly $1,000–$1,500 per custom form) were discussed for tailoring intake fields by department. Kinsey said the vendor’s repository is on U.S. soil and has compliance certifications that addressed CJIS and HIPAA concerns raised during vetting.

Commissioners asked how PST files would be handled; Kinsey said IT would produce PST files and upload them to the vendor portal, where the system would extract attachments, count pages and output PDFs ready for public release. Commissioners also asked about retention and legal discovery; presenters said the system would preserve the final, released product indefinitely when legally required but could be configured to follow the county’s broader retention policy and to apply legal holds on specific matters.

The board gave tentative direction to proceed with further review and to schedule demonstrations; staff said they would return with more detailed cost breakdowns and procurement steps. The county received a single public comment earlier in the meeting asking for the spelling of the acronym HARSB (Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board); that comment was not about the records-software item.

Next steps identified at the meeting: staff will pursue vendor demonstrations and provide more detailed budgeting and procurement recommendations to commissioners.