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Iredell County IT outlines electronic records policy; commissioners raise veteran-records and storage concerns
Summary
Information Technology staff told commissioners the proposed electronic records and imaging policy would allow digitized documents to serve as official records and enable destruction of paper copies per state retention rules; commissioners sought assurances about long-term preservation of certain veteran documents and backups.
Iredell County Information Technology staff presented a proposed electronic records retention and imaging policy to the Board of Commissioners on Sept. 2 and said the board’s approval would allow digitized copies to become the official record and permit destruction of many paper files once state retention schedules are applied.
"It would allow us once we digitize paper copies of documents, the digitized copies become official record, and we can destroy the paper copies instead of storing them in filing cabinets," IT staff member Joey Hellsauzer told the board. He said the draft had been pre-audited and preapproved by the Department of Cultural Resources (DCR) and that, once the board approves it, the county would obtain the proper signatures and return the policy to DCR for final signature.
Hellsauzer described the county’s planned redundancy for digital storage: the county stores records on a SAN and virtual servers, backs those up to a backup appliance, replicates that appliance to an appliance at the health department, and replicates both appliances to the cloud.
"It's on our SAN, on our virtual servers, and then it's backed up to our backup appliance. That backup appliance is replicated to the appliance at the health department, and both of those appliances are replicated to the cloud," Hellsauzer said.
Several commissioners voiced support for digitization as a space-saving and preservation measure but raised concerns about certain original documents they said should be retained. Commissioner Brad (surname not provided on the public transcript) urged that special long-term records — he cited DD Form 214 veteran discharge papers as an example — be segregated and preserved in original form or stored in a secure archival copy to avoid repeated requests to the National Personnel Records Center in the future.
"I've been a department that went from full paper to paperless... I will say this and I'm very supportive of as a general rule, but specifically ... the DD 214's ... we've got to find some place to keep those," the commissioner said.
IT staff responded that the county can and does set aside critical records during digitization and that some departments had already preserved originals while maintaining digital masters. The board approved the policy by consent; staff said the county will get final DCR signature to make the policy official.
Ending
The board approved the policy by consent and directed IT to complete the DCR signature process. Commissioners asked staff to ensure that critical long-term documents (for example, DD Form 214 or other records identified by departments) are handled separately and preserved according to retention and access needs.
