At the request of Superior Court Clerk Connie Taylor, Support Services Director Sharon Stanley, and Information Services Director Kimberly Lemley, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved replacement of the county’s property records management software.

Taylor presented the request to the BOC.

The letter in the BOC agenda packet requesting the upgrade funds described the somewhat involved transfer of funds necessary to undertake the project as follows:

To approve a sole source contract with Pioneer Technology Group, LLC (PTG) for Landmark, Land Records Management software system to connect to the Court’s overall Unified Court Case Management System project, to approve a contract with PTG for the Axia -Board of Equalization software system under provisions of a cooperative contract with Cherokee County, to authorize the Purchasing Director to purchase associated technology infrastructure greater than $100,000.00 for both systems under provisions of various Georgia Department of Administrative Services contracts, and to authorize project accounting within the Public Facility Project Fund and as set forth below.

The letter goes on to state that the existing property deed and land record software is 20 years old, and is incompatible with newer technologies, which creates inefficiencies.

Further, state law now requires that the county’s Tax Assessor’s Office and Board of Equalization (a division of Cobb Superior Court) be independent of one another, and the existing BOE software is maintained by the Tax Assessor’s Office the way it was before state law required the separation. So the existing software system is not compliant with state law.

Taylor said to the commissioners, “This item is a joint item between the Superior Court clerk’s office and Information Services to request the Board of Commissioners authorize the appropriation of funds received from the clerk of Superior Court into the general fund and approve an interfund transfer in the amount of $1,764,763.90. from general fund to public facilities project fund.”

She requested funding for the purchase and maintenance of Landmark Land Records Software for the Cobb County Superior Court Clerk, and Axia Software for the Cobb County Superior Court Clerk and Board of Equalization.

The total impact of the request is the $1,764,763.90 figure Taylor presented to the Board of Commissioners, in addition to annual maintenance fees of an estimated $206,047.61 beginning with the FY2024 budget.

Chairwoman Lisa Cupid made a motion to approve the request, and it passed 4-0, with Commissioner Keli Gambrill absent.