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Commissioners ask counsel to review clerk's plan to use records fees for software, staffing
Summary
County Clerk Jennifer Fogg proposed moving maintenance agreements and some software to the records archive fund and reducing a large software line; she cited Local Government Code 118.025, and commissioners requested a formal attorney and auditor opinion before approving transfers.
County Clerk Jennifer Fogg told the Commissioners Court she analyzed whether the records archive fund could support maintenance agreements and selected software items and cited state statute language in support of some transfers.
Fogg read from what she said was "local government code section 118.025 regarding the records archive," and described the archive fee as $10 per recorded or filed record; she asked whether maintenance agreements, microfilm preservation and certain archive preservation contracts could be paid from the records archive fund. She proposed moving maintenance agreements (including eDOC, Laserfiche, Granicus, VoteCast, US Archives, Swagit and Tyler Eagle) into the archive fund and said the total maintenance agreements line she identified was approximately $202,000 on her packet.
Several commissioners said the question about allowable uses was material and asked county attorneys (Craig or other counsel) and the auditor to provide a written opinion. Commissioners noted that last year they were told the archive fund had narrow allowable uses, and several members asked the clerk to confirm exact line items, replenish forecasts, and return with an auditor‑verified plan. No transfers were made at the meeting; commissioners directed staff to obtain a legal opinion before approving fund reallocations.
