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County clerk says public-records portal is doubling workload; committee to review contract before renewal
Summary
County clerk Liz Klein told the Sawyer County administration committee the records-request portal has increased staff work, often duplicates email responses, and should be reviewed before automatic renewal in December.
Liz Klein, Sawyer County clerk, told the administration committee that a recently adopted public-records portal has helped track requests but is "doubling her work" and creating extra steps for departments that previously handled requests directly.
Klein said the portal often requires documents to be uploaded to the system even when departments previously could respond by email. She described glitches that sometimes prevent requesters from retrieving documents and said the system "used to come to departments" so staff could respond quickly but now the requests route through the portal and the clerk's office.
Klein said most requests are for sheriff's department records and that many require redaction and staff time: "So those record requests are always running behind on the timeline because they require so much staff work to do." She told the committee the county should review the vendor contract before it renews automatically in December to see whether the portal is meeting operational needs.
Klein also explained the county was receiving frequent standing requests from Sunlight Report, which asks for agenda packet materials. Legal staff advised against contesting Sunlight Report's approach because refusing would prompt repeated, automated requests. As a result, the clerk's office has begun adding Sunlight Report to the packet distribution list so the organization receives materials without a separate records request every time.
Committee members discussed whether the portal's tracking benefits outweigh the added processing workload and suggested a department-head discussion or retraining so staff understand when to use the portal and when to provide a quick email response.
Klein also gave a brief update on back-scanning historical resolutions: staff member Laura Bruce is scanning county resolutions back into the 1980s to searchable PDFs for the county website.
