Commissioners OK overtime for records work

SAN ANGELO, Texas The Tom Green County Commissioners Court approved the overtime of some county employees to help shuffle through and destroy records in the county clerks annex archives, making room to store criminal case records.

With the remodeling of the Edd B. Keyes building, about 500 to 600 boxes of criminal records have been moved a few times and need to find a permanent home, said Sheri Woodfin, district clerk.

Woodfin said staff members who are familiar with records will help identify which annex records can be transferred from paper documentation into microfilm or images.

The cost is between $2,500 to $5,000, depending on how many work and how much they work, Woodfin said. We have a cap of $10,000 from the records management fund.

Woodfin said the plan coincides with an order passed by the Texas Supreme Court that mandates electronic filing in civil cases including family and probate cases by attorneys in appellate courts, district courts, statutory county courts, constitutional county courts and statutory probate courts.

Woodfin said that under the mandate, counties with populations of 100,000 to 150,000 such as Tom Green County are scheduled to have the change take effect by January.

Moving criminal records to the annex will help create a permanent place for them, and e-filing of family and civil records is the next step in becoming a paperless court, Woodfin said.

In other news, the court voted to continue the countywide burn ban because of high temperatures and the potential for critical fire weather conditions.

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Commissioners OK overtime for records work