CONYERS — Rockdale County entered into a pilot program this week to convert paper documents to electronic files, which could improve the county’s management of documents and processing of Open Records requests.

The Rockdale County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 at its regular meeting Tuesday to enter into the program to install an electronic records management system, or ERMS. The company to do the work is Abel Solutions Inc. of Roswell in partnership with the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

The county will pay $250 a month for the first year. Able Solutions will begin with meeting agendas and minutes of the Board of Commissioners, Board of Adjustments, Planning Commission, Water and Sewerage Authority, contracts, resolutions and ordinances.

Commissioners spoke of eventually having documents from the departments of Finance and Human Resources converted over electronically.

Rockdale County Commission Chairman Richard Oden said the program would “move the county further into the 21st century” and supported the partnership.

Oden has made a point since taking office of having a disaster recovery plan in place for all county departments. He said the move to electronic document management will make important county records less vulnerable to catastrophic losses.

Also, Rockdale County Clerk Jennifer Rutledge said the program should make processing Open Records requests from the public easier. By state law, the county has three days to comply upon receipt of an Open Records request or give a reason why the request can not be met.

Rutledge explained gathering documents for Open Records requests is labor intensive. With this being Rockdale County’s first step toward an electronic records management system, Rutledge said the county will serve as a model for other counties.

“The focus of this endeavor is to make documents more easily accessible and retrievable to the staff and the public,” she said. “Also, as this being a model, we are creating it as we go with my guidance and input as the county clerk and the records manager for the county and eventually for other counties in the state of Georgia to follow and/or adopt.”

Able Solutions has done similar work last year in case studies for Dawson and Chatham counties, according to the company’s Web site.

Rockdale County received a discount of $1,000 from Able Solutions waiving an initial set up fee for agreeing to be part of the company’s partnership with ACCG. Able Solutions agreed to keep the cost the same for three years as long as they are providing the service, according to the contract.