The Marion County Board’s new codification subcommittee met for the first time Tuesday night and learned the current condition of county board records for ordinances and resolutions approved in the past.
The subcommittee agreed they needed to move to digitized records that could be searched anywhere on the county’s website by keywords.
County Clerk Steve Fox says it is difficult to find information now.
“They are not in indexed format, which means a way that can be searched easily. They are in some cases alphabetical by reason of ordinance or resolution and in newer years they are by actual numbers. So if you know what you are looking for you can find them. It’s when you get a random request like have you ever past an ordinance about wind farms, it’s hard to search because it’s not under wind.”
However, Fox believes all the records are there.
“Think it’s there it’s just in different formats, some are boxed and some in are file cabinets. It’s just bringing them all together.”
And Sub-Committee Chair Brock Waggoner believes hiring a company to digitize the records is the best option.
“When you look at outside people bringing industry in, or people wondering about these questions with disagreements they have and want to see these things, it’s something they can search from home or business office and that computerization will allow them to easily access that without having to utilize county resources that can maybe be used for something else. We have systems that are available now to do this where in the past this system may not have been fully developed.”
Waggoner says the digitization would also cut down on the number of freedom of information act requests and search time by county employees. Fox admits at times now the answer cannot be found. He adds it’s even possible the county board is being asked to pass a new resolution or ordinance when one might already be on the books but unknown to the current board.
Fox feels the record codification needs to go back at least 30 or 40 years.
The subcommittee will meet again in May when they hope to have proposals from companies that do that type of work. Waggoner hopes those companies will contact the county and make a proposal.
The cost will likely determine if this will be a one-year or multi-year project. It’s likely the company would be kept on a yearly retainer to keep the digitized records up to date.
