03-04-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

Commission Minutes--March 4, 2002 2418 According to Mr. Steiner, microfilming has been completed in all 44 of the participating counties throughout the State of North Dakota. Nine counties chose not to be included in the grant project. He said 33 counties have agreed to help in the long-term funding of the NDRIN project, 18 of which have signed the NDRIN Joint Powers Agreement and agreed to contribute $2 per document. Fifteen have agreed to contribute $1 per document to help fund NDRIN. There are seven registered users for Internet access to the central repository, and Mr. Steiner expects that number to grow to 20-25 users by the end of this year. An advertising brochure was sent to over 600 potential NDRIN subscribers in late December. Revenue from the Internet access, as well as the "document preservation fee" enacted by the State legislature, will help to keep the project self-sufficient, Mr. Steiner said. Mr. Montplaisir said current legislation authorizing the document preservation fee expires June 30, 2005, and the county needs to be mindful of that because these fees need to be continued in order to maintain the project without spending county dollars. 8. JAIL TRANSITION TEAM, UDdate bv County Sheriff Sheriff Don Rudnick reported on the jail transition team activities for the period of February 18- 22, according to a list provided by Walt Willis. A number of hours were spent on screening for new hires, which totaled about 400 applications. The number of potential new hires has now been reduced to about 80. The transition team began working full time as of February 25th. 9. ELECTION CONCERNS, City of Grandin aareement Michael Montplaisir, County Auditor, provided some background information on election services and a joint powers agreement for contracting with each of the cities in the county. An original 1991 contract called for the cities to pay 75% of the costs of the election board and the county coordinated the city elections with the regular state and county elections. A 1997 revision omitted the 75% cost to cities in exchange for the county designating the polling places. Another change at that time was adding language in the contract regarding city recounts. The City of Grandin, however, has proposed a different contract than the rest of the cities, with the county paying the election expenses, and they want to designate the polling place as the City of Grandin so people do not have to drive to another location in order to vote. Mr. Montplaisir said Grandin is designated as a polling place in this year's elections, however, there is no guarantee that it will remain in future elections. He said Congress is considering legislation that would require a precinct scanner and a voting device for handicapped citizens in every precinct at a cost of approximately $1 0,000 per precinct. Ifthat is mandated, the county will need to consider consolidating more voting precincts. Cass County now has 66 precincts, which is the largest number, by far, than any other county in the State. He has a list of the number of precincts throughout the State and said five counties have only three voting precincts within their boundaries. David Blaser, Mayor of the City of Grandin, and Councilman Greg Winterquist were present for today's discussion. Mr. Blaser said the City of Grandin now concurs with signing the same joint powers agreement that other cities in the county have signed since the polling place will remain in Grandin for this year. They requested input in the future if the county is considering a change in their polling location because they would then ask their citizens if they want to pay some of the election expenses to keep a precinct there. Mr. Montplaisir said the county will meet with all of the cities in Cass County if consolidation of voting precincts becomes an issue before the 2004 elections.