FRANKFORT — Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Clinton County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve a one-year agreement with Document Mountain, the county’s records digitization vendor. The agreement is worth about $736,000. It was approved after a long debate in which several county officeholders said the vendor’s system is hard to use.
Also, Board President Jordan Brewer said much of the work was done and billed before any contract was approved. Weaver said a committee has met about six times over several months to review the Document Mountain contract. Members included Bert Weaver, Kevin Myers, Alan Dunn, Carol Price and Todd Corey.
Commissioners Weaver and Myers approved the one-year agreement…Brewer voted no. Supporters said the deal protects the money the county has already spent on scanning and gives the vendor one year to fix problems. Critics questioned how the work was approved, how it will be paid for, and whether employees will ever use the system.
With most of the scanning completed, Dunn said the $736,000 pays for that scanning, not for the software employees have criticized. He said Document Mountain agreed to cut $400,000 from the cost. He also said the scanned files would belong to the county in a format that could be moved to another vendor. The county plans to pay with one-time solar farm money that has not yet been set aside for other uses. Dunn said the $120,000 annual hosting fee is already in the budget.
Objections over approvals
The county has received about $429,000 in invoices for work that this board never approved, noted Brewer…and that those invoices were paid. He also cited a survey of employees who use the system. He said 39 of 58 people responded, and 92% said they were not happy with Document Mountain’s work. “We’re basically being held hostage over work that was done without the proper approvals that are required by government,” Brewer said. He noted that the agreement renews automatically each year for up to three years, with a 90-day exit option.
Employees describe problems
Several county employees spoke during the discussion. County IT tech, Tim Elston, said users have to download an entire document to print a single page. “This also makes it completely unusable for the public,” he said.
County Clerk Stephanie Harshbarger cited labeling errors, and said that some civil cases have been labeled as criminal cases in the system. “If our own staff finds that the system is difficult to use, I am concerned about how easily it would be for the general public to use it effectively,” she said. Harshbarger pointed out that said she never received a complete quote from the vendor. And she asked that Document Mountain remove a statement on its website about Clinton County’s records, which she called false.
County Assessor Jada Ray asked how departments will get original records back. She was told the contract will set out a procedure. Representatives from the surveyor’s office, human resources office, assessor’s office, and recorder’s office, also stated concerns about accuracy, security, poor communication, lack of answers, missing files, and absense of quotes with Document Mountain.
Accountability debate
Myers read a prepared statement explaining that the county has already spent about $1.4 million on the project. He called the access problems “totally unacceptable” but said walking away would not fix them. “I believe finishing this project with accountability attached to it is the right thing to do for the county,” Myers said. He said the problems should be fixed within one year.
Weaver compared the situation to leaking windows at the new county building, which the county has asked the contractor to repair rather than replacing the contractor.
After the vote, the president asked what would happen if the vendor did not meet that deadline. Liz Stitzel of the Area Plan Commission said contracts often include financial penalties when performance standards are not met.
Other business
The board voted 3-0 to:
- Post a 10-day notice toward tearing down the house at 9123 E. State Road 28. The owner is in a nursing home, and officials said fines were unlikely to get results. Bids could be requested at the next meeting.
- Close the unsafe-building case at 7858 E. County Road 200 North after the house there was removed.
- Approve a 36-month copier lease with CPI at $4,970 a month.
Commissioners also informally supported selling an old Highway Department truck, plow, and salt box to the City of Frankfort for $60,000 through an agreement between the two entities.
Commissioner Weaver said AT&T has agreed to clean up roadside ditches damaged by a contractor, and the county is reviewing its permit rules.