ERSC Meeting Minutes October 13, 1999The Electronic Records Study Commission (“ERSC” or “Commission”) met on Wednesday, October 13, 1999 at 1:00 p.m. via teleconference between Fayetteville and Little Rock, pursuant to written notice fixing the place and time. The following Commission members were present or absent as indicated below: Dennis
Byrd In person Little Rock Susan
Cromwell In person Little Rock being all of the Commission members appointed in accordance with the provisions of Act 1060 of 1999. Readings of the minutes of both the August 27 and September 10 meetings were dispensed with since each Commissioner has individually read the minutes. Upon motions duly made, seconded, and carried, the minutes of both meetings were unanimously approved. Copies of the minutes can be found on the ERSC web site. The Commission was addressed by representatives from several Arkansas counties regarding their particular forms of electronic record keeping. Jeff Sikes of the Association of Arkansas Counties explained the results of a survey questionnaire geared to identify all electronic access into county records. John Gibson, Assistant County Administrator from Washington County, and Steve Kizzar, Computer Systems Administrator, also from Washington County spoke about their efforts to automate and make assessor’s records available in response to a push from the realtor community. This discussion generated several issues related to cost recovery, access fees (which are the same for both commercial use and citizen access), and potential inadvertent subsidization by the county of a commercial interest. John Watkins commented that it appears we as taxpayers have already paid once for production of the record. Steve Kizzar indicated that the fees were not for production of the record but retrieval of the record. Lack of expertise about the technology in county offices and education of employees to be able to retrieve the appropriate information in order to comply with requests were also identified as issues in this discussion. Next, Phillip Scott of CAMA Technologies (Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal) spoke about his observations in working with automation in Arkansas counties. In most counties, electronic records for real estate information do not yet exist. Phillip questioned whether county officials know what is public and what is not? He reiterated earlier comments about general lack of training and expertise in county offices. He questioned what role the state plays in counties and cities? There are thirty-nine counties currently using CAMA. Mark Wingfield of Dynamic Information Solutions (DISK) spoke next. His company currently supports 14 counties with document imaging systems. He affirmed the observations of prior speakers on the issues regarding expertise in county offices. He endorsed the idea for providing public access systems with friendly user interfaces in public locations. He pointed out one aspect of imaging systems that is unique and opens a potential liability issue regarding data integrity. If the indices for the images are not exported appropriately with attempts to “report out” the electronic record, images could be mis-indexed and errors generated. Most counties find it difficult to automate at a reasonable cost. Some commercial vendors want to set up own equipment with county offices, which then raises access and security issues. Carol Griffee asked each of the vendors who made a presentation whether his company would be amenable to responding to RFP’s that contained specific language about creation of databases that provided accessibility for FOI purposes. There was unanimous consent that such language would be positively responded to. John Watkins asked about the statute concerning land records. Jeff Sykes agreed to obtain Code citation. Julie Cullen raised the issue of dealing with e-mail or faxed FOI requests. When does FOI request begin (time window)? Mac Norton – AG bill was never introduced in session (SB 805 sponsored by Senator Argue). Mac requested prior information and working papers on previous legislation as well as an information sheet from Florida. He suggested the members look to the Florida information as an aide for the development of our guiding principles. Presenters at next meeting will be the Chair of the Board of the Information Network of Arkansas, Sharon Priest; INA Manager, Robert Chandler; Preston Means, DFA Revenue Division; Michael Hipp, Director of DIS; and Shelby Johnson, State Land Information Coordinator. Julie also acknowledged new links of interest, both John Watkins “Adventures in FOIA Land” article and the FOIA Survey done under Dennis Byrd’s leadership. Both links can be found on the ERSC home page. Carol Griffee raised concerns about the amount of material we needed to cover, the depth of our issues, and the possibility of meeting more often or for longer periods. There being no other business to be transacted and upon motion duly made, seconded, and carried, the meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m. Patti Hill, Secretary
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