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Cole County Commission weighs outsourcing to meet ADA document-remediation deadline
Summary
Staff reported eight working days until a remediation deadline and requested a small budget to outsource difficult documents (estimated $1.50/page for complex pages, $1.20/page for text). Commissioners authorized staff to begin work with an initial $500 bucket and instructed staff to return if costs exceed $1,000.
Staff responsible for ADA document remediation told the Cole County Commission on April 14 that eight working days remained before the remediation deadline and that eight offices are complete while five are nearly finished. Staff member (S3) said some documents—especially those with tables—are more challenging to remediate and offered to outsource selected files to a remediation vendor that bills by the page.
Staff (S3) provided per-page estimates: about $1.50 per page for most documents and $1.20 per page if the document is mainly text. That prompted a discussion among commissioners about an appropriate initial funding amount. Several commissioners suggested starting with a modest bucket—$500 was suggested; staff was instructed to proceed and to return for approval if costs exceed $1,000 (commissioners discussed a higher threshold before returning to the commission, with some concern expressed about legal exposure if rules were not followed).
Commissioners and staff also discussed practical work-arounds, including temporarily removing nonessential items from the public website and providing documents by email on request, while the most challenging documents are remediated. Staff emphasized that the website itself is in compliance but that some documents posted to the site remain to be remediated.
A county official (S5) indicated the county has funds available and that the finance office can handle a small budget transfer if necessary; commissioners agreed the remediation work is critical and authorized staff to proceed under the described parameters. The commission asked staff to return if costs approach or exceed the agreed-upon notification threshold.
The commission said it will revisit the effort the next week for updates.
