To: Martin L. Cousineau, Finance Committee Chairperson
From: Rochelle Brown, Prosecutor’s Office Operations Director
title
RE: Approval of a proposed amendment to the 2024-2025 Appropriations Resolution, in the amount of $25,000.00, to provide for physical file storage and retrieval costs for the remainder of the 2025 Fiscal Year; the transfer from the general fund balance will be deposited into account 1010-296.01-801.004
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
The Prosecutor’s Office requests approval for an additional $25,000 from general funds to the Prosecutor’s Service Contract (1010-296.01-801.004) account to cover past due invoices and remaining monthly costs for FY25.
BACKGROUND:
Shue & Voeks was an offsite storage facility utilized by many departments of the county for several years. The Prosecutor’s office was one of the departments that utilized this facility for our old, inactive, offsite file storage for many years. In August 2021, we went on a site visit to the S&V facility to see how our files were stored and kept organized. After the visit, we realized that the conditions in which the files were kept were not ideal. Additionally, the facility lacked appropriate organization to safely maintain our files to ensure proper retrieval and refiling. We also discovered that there was no contract existing governing the fees or other aspects of their service. After this visit our office began looking for other facilities to possibly move and house our case files or moving to digitally stored files. Late in 2021 we began meeting with different vendors for scanning and digitizing our case files with the upcoming implementation of a new paperless system. We were able to use ARPA funds to purchase an electronic case management system, called Prosecutor by Karpel (Karpel or PbK). We simultaneously decided to seek a vendor to digitize our physical files, active and inactive to input into the new system. We are mandated by state retention schedule to maintain our capital cases for 50 years once completed. It was our intention to digitize these files. After the RFP process and our selection of Leonard Brothers (LB) to be the vendor for scanning and digitizing files they consulted to help us determine whether digitizing inactive files or storing physical files would be more cost effective. They investigated the files at S&V and confirmed our earlier determination that our files were not kept in accordance with current records storage industry best practice. After several meeting with us and becoming familiar with our workflow and procedures, Leonard Bros recommended that it would be more cost effective to store our physical files and use the scan on demand process to access only those needed files instead of scanning all files with was previously estimated by them to at a cost of $1.5 Million. and physical storage of inactive case files until the retention period is up. LB completed the digitization of part one of the RFP relative to our active files and began work on relocating and organizing our archived files, phase II of the RFP, to be stored at their facility. We are paying their month-to-month rate for the files that were moved from S&V.
DISCUSSION:
Previously we had been paying on average a monthly fee to S&V of $700-$900 for storage, retrieval and refiling. Due to the poor storage conditions and lack of organization by the previous vendor we incurred costs to have LB organize the files from S&V in a manner ensuring industry best practices for storage and successful retrieval rates. This resulted in several higher monthly bills than anticipated and necessitates this request to cover the costs of file storage, retention, destruction and retrieval for the remainder of FY 24-25
IMPACT ON HUMAN RESOURCES:
None
IMPACT ON BUDGET:
An additional $25,000.00 is being requested for FY24-25 from general fund. This will position us to reduce future storage costs for our files. A budget amendment is attached.
IMPACT ON FACILITIES:
None
IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGY:
We already have the technology systems in place to manage this, so no anticipated additional cost.
CONFORMITY TO COUNTY PRIORITIES:
Promotes safe communities by working with law enforcement agencies in the processing of criminal cases.
resolution
TO THE HONORABLE CHAIRPERSON AND MEMBERS OF THE GENESEE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
BE IT RESOLVED, by this Board of County Commissioners of Genesee County, Michigan, that the request by the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney to authorize appropriating an additional $25,000.00 from general funds to the Prosecutor’s Service Contract (1010-296.01-801.004) account to cover past due invoices and remaining monthly costs for FY25 related to file storage, retention, destruction, and retrieval, is approved (a copy of the memorandum request and supporting documentation being on file with the official records of the May 7, 2025 meeting of the Finance Committee of this Board), and the Chief Financial Officer is directed to record the attached budget amendment.