County considers CivicPlus FOIA portal to track public records requests, commissioners ask for demo and more detail

County staff briefed commissioners on a proposed CivicPlus add-on that would create a public portal to submit, track and archive public-records (FOIA) requests. The portal would link from the county web site, log request progress, collect staff-hours metadata and provide automated redaction tools.

Staff noted the county already uses CivicPlus for social-media archiving and demoed a version used by other Maine municipalities. The proposal would add an annual subscription (staff mentioned an amount in the meeting context) on top of current CivicPlus subscriptions. Staff said the portal would improve transparency by creating a searchable archive of fulfilled requests so future requesters could find previously produced records without requiring staff to recreate responses.

Commissioners asked pointed questions about whether the system would reduce staff time or simply improve tracking. Staff acknowledged initial setup and some time to populate the database would be required and that staff would still have to search files; the system would better document time estimates, provide a single redaction tool, and eventually create a reusable database of previously fulfilled requests.

Ending: Commissioners asked staff to schedule a product demo and to return with more information, including concrete examples of time savings, cost details and an implementation plan before making a funding decision.