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County clerk seeks records-preservation contract, travel funds and higher pay for clerks
Summary
District Clerk Sherry Griffith asked commissioners to approve a multi-year records-preservation arrangement (about $48,000 this year), requested travel funding for a clerk to attend a conference, and urged raising clerk wages to at least $17 an hour and considering elected-official pay adjustments.
District Clerk Sherry Griffith told the Harrison County commissioners she has a vendor proposal to preserve and digitize fragile county records and asked the court to consider including the project in this year’s budget.
"We have a company that has come in and he took probably, I don't know, a whole box of our files," Griffith said, describing a vendor that would clean, reconstruct and digitize old records and place copies on a cloud and into the county's Tyler system for remote access.
Griffith said the firm would work quarterly, be paid as it processes records, and that the county would keep responsibility for certifying and charging for certified copies. "The first, what we allowed is 48,000 for this year's budget, and they get paid as they do them," she said, adding, "So it's $4,800, I think, a month."
She told the court that the county already has staff scanning earlier records and that some archival material dates to the 1800s. On finances, Griffith reported a balance of roughly $148,000 in one preservation fund and said prior necessary purchases (file folders, etc.) had been charged to the fund.
Griffith also asked for modest travel funding to take a clerk to the county and district clerk conference, noting the judiciary grant can reimburse two nights and mileage for part of the cost.
Separately, Griffith urged the court to raise minimum hourly pay for clerks from about $15 to at least $17. She cited staff duties—managing multiple accounts (she listed $10,968,866.65 across several accounts and a minors' registry of about $654,000) and monthly and court-mandated reporting—and said pay compression and turnover make retention difficult.
"We would like to see the minimum be $17 an hour at least," Griffith said. She also asked the court to consider elected-official compensation adjustments in light of growing responsibilities.
Commissioners asked questions about the vendor workflow, access to digitized files and which funds would be used. Griffith said certified copies would be issued by her office and that vendor-hosted digital files could be accessed via links from the county site once integrated. The court did not take a vote on the preservation proposal or on pay changes at this session and said it would review budget lines and fund balances before making final decisions.
The hearing record shows these were requests and proposals; no formal appropriations or salary changes were adopted during the meeting.
