Madison, Alabama by the Numbers
59,785
Residents
32
Public Records Requests per Month
30
Minutes to Complete a Records Request
We had the pleasure of interviewing our client Kristen Bruseth, Municipal Records Coordinator for Madison, Alabama, to learn about their experience implementing JustFOIA as their records requests management solution.
The Problem
The City of Madison, Alabama, struggled to create a central location to process records requests. They printed emails from different departments or scanned paper forms for each request. Archiving these requests for future reference required printing countless emails from multiple employees and departments and storing them in file folders, including copies of the requested documents and all correspondence with the requester.
The whole process took up to two and a half weeks to complete.
The Solution
"We wanted one central location [to work] rather than printing and scanning emails from different departments. JustFOIA saved us!"
With JustFOIA’s outward-facing Public Portal live, the public received it well and the City gained praise for the simplified experience. One feature Madison’s requesters appreciate is that they can upload additional documents to their original request. The City now sends invoices to the requester for any necessary fees and processes the payment within the system – dramatically improving the speed and life cycle of processing a request.
JustFOIA routes requests to the appropriate department, and requests only take 30 minutes to fulfill.
"As a City Clerk, I save time because all I'm doing is routing it to the departments. No more printing. No more space [needed] for file cabinets. No more archiving in the archives room. If we need to look at something from three months ago, we pull up the request number. JustFOIA’s internal discussions and correspondence feature archives all communication - internal and from requesters. Everything is just fabulous. Streamlined," Bruseth shared.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the City is incredibly grateful to have a cloud-based product to process their records request. Multiple people work remotely, and the buildings are closed to the public, but they continued business better than usual with a cloud-based solution, best-in-class technical support and training.
"Working with JustFOIA support has been fantastic. Anytime I have any questions, they answer right away. The training was outstanding. Every single one of us understands the system. We can also access the Training Center and use it to train new hires. Most of the time, by watching the videos and using the Training Center, trainees understand it better than even if I had explained it," stated Bruseth.
