Commissioners on Nov. 19 pressed the Lorain County recorder on ways to help the county pay for shared cybersecurity and IT services after recent security incidents.

The recorder’s representative said the office’s 2026 operating request is about $1,000,071 including salary and hospitalization, plus roughly $15,000 for supplies, and that the recorder’s special technology/equipment reserve stood at about $639,000 as of Oct. 31. The recorder also told the panel the office typically pays its software vendor, Document Technology Systems (DTS), roughly $17,000 per quarter from that fund and that the office’s per-document fee collection contributes materially to county revenue flows.

“Everything we collect, half of it goes to Ohio Housing Trust,” the recorder said, describing the current split of the $34 recording fee and noting the recorder retains $6 per document for operating costs while the remainder goes to the county general fund. Commissioners asked whether the recorder could reallocate some of those equipment-fund dollars to cybersecurity vendor Convergent—work initially built with ARPA funds—and the recorder said some of that money could be used for security and software conversion costs.

Commissioners framed two options for immediate relief: pay more from special revenue directly toward Convergent’s ongoing protection and maintenance costs, or alter the recording-fee split so a larger share flows into the general fund to help cover countywide IT and cybersecurity expenses. County staff cautioned that some special revenue accounts are legally restricted and timing of fees (monthly vs. end-of-year collection) affects available balances.

The recorder described recent steps already taken: scanning index books back to 1824 with ARPA funding and moving to a new vendor after a prior vendor experienced a cyberattack. The office said it has moved much of its indexing into cloud redundancy to reduce risk and is planning additional redundancy work.

Commissioners stressed the county’s goal to consolidate certain back-office services to reduce duplication and cyber risk, and signaled they would soon ask all elected offices for specific numbers on what could be contributed from special funds or what expenses could be shifted to shared county services.

The meeting closed with staff agreeing to return with specific numeric options in the next few weeks so commissioners can convert ideas into budget adjustments.