Tuesday, the Sherburne County Board decided it was time the county made an effort to do the same thing by implementing a new electronic system that eliminates paperwork.

 

“This particular project is an extremely important one because eventually what this will allow the county to do is focus on electronically utilizing and moving documents internally so we don’t have a lot of paper floating around,” said County Administrator Steve Taylor. 

 

The county’s Information System’s (IS) Coordinator Brian Kamman said the SharePoint program is a Microsoft product that will allow the county to have internal communications electronically without the need for processing and transferring paper.

 

“Today we have a lot of paper that goes back and forth every month. They get printed out on printers, put into envelopes and sent to different departments,” he said. “Things as simple as a notification coming from the county attorney down to IS may take two days because of the timing internally for the physical paperwork and the delivery.” 

 

The proposed intranet system is designed to speed processes within county government operations, and reduce paper output, saving money and insuring documents are not being lost, said Kamman.

 

Kamman said the first project proposed under the new electronic intranet system will be Requests for Board Action (RBAs), which are documents generated by different departments and included in the agenda for the commissioners to vote on at county board meetings.

 

“The departments create the RBAs. Those get printed out and are approved internally within the department, then sent to the county administrator where they look at them a few times then approve them,” said Kamman. 

 

“Then they’re physically assembled into our packet. So it’s very laborious, very costly from a time standpoint and paper standpoint.”

 

The SharePoint system will allow those documents to be generated electronically without the need for printing and handling the documents at multiple sites at the Government Center.

 

Taylor said another feature of the system will be setting up a centralized database of all board actions.

 

“So when folks look for prior board action, we’ll be able to do a search,” he said.

 

Future uses of the system include expense claim submissions, newsletters, inventory transfers, new hire process and documentation and new equipment requests.

 

The board approved the expenditure of up to $48,000 to implement the system, which includes $20,460 for consultation and training, $22,387 for software and $5,153 in contingency funds.

 

 

The board gave the auditor/treasurer authorization to hold a tax forfeited land sale and appointed the county assessor to set minimum sale prices for the properties. No date was set for the sale.

 

In other action the board:

 

• Approved two-year collective bargaining agreements with Teamsters Local 320, Health & Human Services (HHS) Unit and Public Health Nurse Unit, which includes a two percent per year salary increase and no change to employer benefit contributions in 2014;

 

• Appointed Lori Collins as the primary delegate and Jolene Klang as the alternate with the Minnesota Computer Cooperative;

 

• Approved a $2,784 Adoption and Foster Care Recruitment grant. The funding will be used to purchase LexisNexis licenses, which will assist in the recruitment of relative adoptive and/or relative foster parents;

 

• Approved applying for a DHS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Drug-Free Communities grant in the amount of $125,000;

 

• Approved a residential simple plat for Reuther Addition, consisting of two lots with existing residences on 25 acres on 112th Street in Livonia Twp.