In an effort to make services more efficient for residents, Scio Township is taking the steps to look deeper into going paperless.
Last month, the Scio Township Board of Trustees approved a contract to have DryvIQ deliver the preliminary scoping of the work involved in “Project Paperless.”
Township clerk Jessica Flintoft explained the idea in her Dec. 12 report to the board.
“The Clerk, IT Director, Manager, and Office Coordinator have had several conversations over the years about the best approach for implementing a records management program for the Township,” Flintoft said. “The State of Michigan Records Retention Schedules define how long and in what format every record of the Township must be kept. Many are permanent records, while most are transitory records. Much of what the Township creates and has is a ‘non-record’ — a document created with a use at the time that has no future use. And, certainly, there are some rich historical records of the Township which we treasure, but would like to better protect and make more accessible. And overall, we want to make services more efficient for residents–across all areas of the Township.”
The proposal is for DryvIQ to develop a scope of work for the township to implement automation of township processes and digital records management, Flintoft said. The contract is up to $4,700 that comes from the General Fund.
“Once the Township has the scope of work, it can consider issuing an RFP for the implementation of the project,” she said. “If the Township decides to proceed, it would be competitively bid, after being budgeted.”
In giving some background, Flintoft said over the years, some departments such as Treasury, Finance, and Assessing have adhered to State of Michigan Records destruction schedule, and in recent years, the Fire Department has caught up. She said other departments such as Utilities, Planning, Zoning, and Clerk has significant work to do.
“The Township Clerk and Township staff have never had an efficient, well thought out plan for managing records–particularly electronic records,” Flintoft said. “With our IT Director on board, we now have the technical expertise and the Sharepoint platform for management of digital records so that we can effectively manage these public records.”
In the coming budget, Flintoft said the clerk’s will be asking for additional resources for records management—“improving physical space where we store paper records, and adding records management expertise to our staff to better manage paper and digital records for the Township.”
She said the township IT Director is completing the Network Refresh in the coming months, which is the first priority so the township has a physical network and servers that can support their work.
“Once complete, he will move toward the organization of information on our network in Sharepoint so that we can use it more effectively,” said Flintoft. “However, to really use Sharepoint so that we can move away from paper forms and records (where practical and permitted), the Township needs additional outside IT Expertise.”
It was noted that Township Board Trustee Mark Brazeau is part of DryvIQ, so Flintoft said the appropriate disclosures were recorded as part of the proposed contract amendment and Brazeau made this disclosure at the meeting publicly, and did not take part in the vote.