Travis County Commissioners Court
August 25, 2009,
Item 4
Number 4, the last public hearing, receive comments regarding the fiscal year 2010 district clerk's records management plan.
move that the public hearing be opened.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
good morning.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners.
>> [indiscernible] director of management communications resources.
>> [indiscernible] few words she wants to say.
>> hi, michelle
>> [indiscernible] chief deputy district clerk's office.
molly at the district clerk has a previous engagement, so I'm filling in.
this is the first time that we've had to come forward to you for a public hearing on a records management plan, that is because there was new legislation passed that established an archive fee, which you approved last week that we will start collecting September the law specifies -- September 1, the law specifies that we have to have a public hearing on the map that the legislation mandates.
that's the reason that we're here.
the law specifies first of all, that we have to identify what goes into the records archive and we have done so.
in the plan.
now, you'll have before you what is a combined plan for our other records management fund.
this is the special fund and the one that I'm going to be talking about is the one that's under -- that's under on page 3, section 51305 on the records technology fund.
that's the one that's the -- requires the public hearing.
we've designated the archive to be a rather broad definition of what's into the archive for two particular reasons.
one administratively it is easier for us to just be very inclusive and say it all goes in there rather than to have to go through document by document and divide up what doesn't and does go in.
it's just quick inventory do it this way.
second, in our experience, we find that maintaining the entire case record that -- that either civil or criminal case, is of use even past the life of the case that is when it's adjudicated.
we've had instance, I think that you can appreciate this, where people have come into the office saying they say that I have a judgment against me, but I've never ever had a judgment against me.
and what we're able to do because we -- because we keep the entire record and do not destroy it, even though the law allows us to do so, they have the information in that record to prove up that it was a different person with that name that had the judgment.
if we were not to keep the entire record, the part of the record that they would need to prove up that it was or was not them would be gone.
and there would be very little that they could do.
so we find it of value to do this.
so that's the first thing this plan does.
the second thing, it talks about what we're going to do to preserve the record.
it a very, again, simple approach.
we have determined the best thing to do is to take both a high tech and a low tech format.
and what we're doing, we have our document management system, we're going to take all the records, they will be scanned and digitally available, easy to access, easy to duplicate, easy to distribute.
but we are also with the assistance of records management and steve's office, going to take those same records and put them on microfilm and that's simply as a precaution because we need to acknowledge at some point something might happen with technology.
and it's not available, it's not permanently at least temporarily.
when you have a low tech solution, we still have the ability to access these records and it's just a good safety net.
essentially that is what the plan does.
i will let steve comments if he needs to.
>> I would just like to say that it's been a high collaborative effort and I'm here to support the district clerk's office in this endeavor.
>> the information on -- on microfilm and -- and --
>> used to be high tech.
>> exactly.
in fact we have so many frames, you know, I remember dealing with that, but anyway you have so many frames you could put a whole gobble of stuff on the microfilm.
of course if we're going to end up using that -- that -- of course there's -- doesn't take very much space at all.
these things don't take much space.
you slot it in, boy you can look at anything that you want to that's been archived and saved, I just think that it's a good move in the right direction.
i didn't mean to cut you off.
>> I appreciate your saying that.
>> very true.
>> and again what steve is doing for us as well, he's taking the digital record and he's writing it to microfilm as well.
>> right.
>> so he has the commitment -- equipment to take microfilm and write it to digital and other equipment that writes digital to microfilm.
so over time we're going to be able to get a duel records system for everything.
as we create more records, we will just maintain it and keep it in both formats.
work together to make sure that that happens.
>> this is a public hearing.
would anyone like to give testimony during the public hearing, if so please come forward.
>> move that the public hearing be closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
this is posted as item no.
31 today.
>> we would not object if you chose to put the approval of the plan on consent.
thank you.
>> well, that's mighty nice of you.
>> [laughter]
>> thank you.
>> now, if you are here on other items.
>> thank you all.
>> on the item a 3, we advised purchasing we would try to call this item up at about 11:15 in response to a request for time certain.
let me say we will call 15 up after number 6.
15 after number 6.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:07 PM
