The Grays Harbor County commissioners are planning to purchase new software for records management, agenda management and public records.

The county is contracting with Naviant for their OnBase software. It’s estimated the county will pay some $200,000 in startup fees. Additional license fees will cost the county some $30,000 per year.

Funds for purchasing the software will come from the county’s Auditor management and operations fund (M&O fund) and possibly from grants. The fund generates revenue through recording fees, and it is earmarked to be used for historical preservation. Currently, the Auditor M&O fund has more than $400,000. The county is applying for grants that would cover about $80,000, leaving $120,000 to be covered by the M&O fund.

The county put out a request for proposals for potential records software, and eight companies responded. Naviant and ICompass were the only companies offering every component the county was looking for in software — some companies offered only records management, but not agenda management; or agenda and meeting minutes management, but no records management.

When the software is purchased and installed, it will be used countywide and the commissioners say it will help with records storage, records retention, and it will make the process of searching public records more efficient. Records retention is an issue for the county.

“In a building that we have here in town near the courthouse that is a former home, it’s full of boxes and full of storage. The old jail has boxes, and we also have other storage at other county properties,” Commissioner Vickies Raines noted.

With the new software, the county can make a digital, indexable copy of each public record. The county then could either send the physical copy to the state for archiving, or it can destroy the record, depending on the type record.

Moving forward, records will be digitally preserved immediately, Commissioner Randy Ross said. And Ross said the county’s goal is to make the records more accessible to the public.

“Ideally, the county — and most counties — would like to get to the point where everything is searchable off the website,” Ross said. “Then the citizen or researcher can do their own thing and we don’t have to be involved with that.”

Through the agenda management service of the software, the county should see effiencies between departments. Currently, paperwork is shuffled between departments requiring signatures from multiple staff members. With the new software, those signatures could be applied digitally without the hassle of paperwork.

The county also eventually could phase out Laserfishe services, a cost of about $19,000 per year.