City employees are in the process of transferring all public records—including city council minutes, council agendas, ordinances and resolutions—to an online system that will give residents the ability to view and print those records at any time at the city’s website, www.jemisonalabama.org.

The VendorVault system, offered by TriNovus of Birmingham, will create an online database for Jemison’s public records.

The advantage for Jemison residents is that they will no longer have to visit city hall during business hours for a records request. Jemison officials will also have access to records, but they also now have a backup in case any of the records were lost in a fire or natural disaster.

“It basically opens up city hall records to all citizens 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Starr Largin, municipality coordinator for TriNovus. “It gives them a transparent government. Some citizens run into the problem of, when they get off work, city hall is closed.”

Jemison’s records would be backed up nightly on a server in Homewood. Officials would have a different level of access than everyday users, who wouldn’t be able to see all the information contained on the site.

TriNovus has provided similar services to private businesseses in the past but just recently reached out to municipalities.

Pelham was the first municipality to go live with the VendorVault system, in the spring. TriNovus has since entered into contracts with Montevallo and Wilton.

Jemison would be the first Chilton County city to use the service.

The system can be catered to each municipality’s needs. TriNovus can train city workers on all aspects of the system, for example, or the company can actually come in periodically and perform maintenance operations.

“We don’t want to actually be a vendor to these municipalities—we don’t want to sell them a product, we want to sell them a relationship,” Largin said.

Original Article by The Clanton Advertiser.

I would like to express my utmost gratitude towards you and your company for all work that you have put into helping the Town of Wilton get started with the MyCitySAFE software. Until now, we had only originals of all of our council minutes, ordinances, and other important documents. Since we have started using your software, I don’t have to worry with trying to locate files when I am pressed for time, I simply go to the website and there it is, ready to go. It makes us truly be a transparent government and to us and our citizens, that means more than words.

Your staff has been absolutely amazing; we wouldn’t have a website without your help and Katie did a great job on it.

Starr has gone above and beyond to help the Town of Wilton. She has helped us get started by scanning documents into the computer and any questions that I had. We truly got a “package” deal from you guys, and I am impressed by your employees dedication to your company.

Getting started with MyCitySAFE software was a breeze, and it has continued to be. I was skeptical at first of how much time it would save me, but it really is so simple to scan and upload. There aren’t enought words to express how much your company has helped us, you brought us into the 21st century and we are looking forward to many more with you.

Thanks again,

April Price
Town Clerk
Town of Wilton
100 Depot Street
Wilton, Alabama

During our testing period we have made suggestions to TriNovus to enhance MyCitySAFE, making it more “user friendly” for municipal governments. The entire staff of TriNovus has been a pleasure to work with and have been proactive in their response to our questions and suggestions.

The ability for the mayor, city council, employees, the public and media to have complete and immediate access to all public records is a tremendous asset in our efforts to be transparent in city government.

The City of Pelham has been very pleased with MyCitySAFE and we look forward to continuing our relationship with TriNovus.

Sincerely,

Tom Seale
Finance Director / City Clerk
City of Pelham, Alabama