County clerk reports higher e‑filing and passport revenue, work to complete Odyssey data clean‑up

Sarah Smith, Lubbock County Clerk, briefed commissioners on June 24 about records, jury and passport operations and the office’s work to correct data and security issues arising from an earlier case management conversion.

Smith said the county clerk’s office processed roughly 104,229 e‑filings (FY to date) and that passport work is a continuing revenue source: the office accepted 1,499 passport applications in FY2024 and contributed about $52,000 to the general fund that year; since the passport service began on March 1, 2023, the office has returned about $127,295 to the general fund.

Why it matters: Court records availability and proper handling of expunctions and sealed records are public‑interest issues in county records management. Smith said the office has spent months auditing case records since the Odyssey migration to ensure expunctions are not exposed and that permissions are set correctly.

Key details - E‑filing and workload: 104,229 e‑filings reported for the most recent period presented; monthly filings average shown previously at roughly 8,700 per month. - Jury operations: FY2024 summons sent 62,350; jury pay totals for FY2024 were about $204,197 (pay schedule currently $20 the first day, then $58 subsequent days). Smith said the office budgets $339,000 for jury pay as a contingency. - Passport services: 1,499 applications in FY2024 produced $52,000 contribution to the general fund; Smith said the office expects FY2025 passport revenue to exceed FY2024 by $4–5k. - Odyssey conversion and data security: The office identified expunctions and record visibility problems after the case management conversion; Smith said staff have reviewed records case‑by‑case, corrected permissions, and are now testing the dataset with IT and the records office to ensure public access is appropriately restricted. She said some expunction records were made public after the migration but that fixes are ongoing. - Paperless plans: Smith said she is preparing a paperless rollout but will install kiosks in main office and archives first so records access is not impaired; the office has been testing migrated records and fixing security and indexing issues prior to enabling broader public access.

Operational context and staffing Smith said the clerk’s office has 33 full‑time staff and three part‑time positions and currently one vacancy. She asked commissioners to consider merit increases where appropriate and said the office’s performance measures (filings, passport revenue, jury costs) will guide workload and staffing decisions.

Ending: Smith asked for patience while staff complete the Odyssey clean‑up and said the office would notify the court when paperless services can be made fully public without risking exposure of records that should be sealed or expunged.