County clerk proposes pause on expensive indexing contract to explore in‑house and AI‑assisted options

Los Alamos County’s clerk outlined four options for completing a long‑running records indexing project and asked the council for latitude to study lower‑cost alternatives, including emerging technologies.

County Clerk Martin Redondo told council that he inherited an indexing initiative started by his predecessor and was surprised by the highest price received in response to a request for proposals. "My impression of the situation is that we essentially have 4 options," Redondo said. He listed them as: (1) pay an outside vendor to complete the indexing; (2) hire several casual workers to do the work in house; (3) continue doing the work slowly using existing staff time and accept a 5–10 year completion timeline; or (4) continue current efforts while investigating emerging technologies—"particularly AI"—to speed the work and reduce cost.

Redondo said his preference was to continue current operations while studying whether new technology could provide an affordable and rapid path to completion. He asked for council direction to delay committing to the high outside‑vendor cost and to allow staff to return with findings and recommendations. Councilors noted that the clerk’s budget was tentatively approved without the vendor budget option and said they were open to receiving a follow‑up report from the clerk before making a final appropriation.

Action/next step: Clerk to study in‑house, temporary‑hire and technology‑assisted options and return with analysis to council; no formal ordinance or contract award was made during the meeting.