Wise County, Virginia is tucked away in the state, far from west from the hustle and bustle of Richmond and the DC metro area, but it has been an innovator across a number of disciplines, including land records. The county has been engaged in futuristic projects like beta-testing SpaceX’s Starlink and being open for drone testing, but it has also made incredible strides in what is admittedly slightly less exciting, the County Clerk’s office.
The office has been in the news several times over the years, but this past week, industry publication GCN compiled some of the advances in a conversation with outgoing public servant Jack Kennedy, the Clerk for City of Norton Circuit Court and Wise County.
The story is pretty amazing, because when Kennedy was first elected to the office, it was considerably further behind the times than its peers. When he first took office in 1996 there was a mess of paper, no fax machine, handwritten work, really just the opposite of what he was used to as an attorney working for a private practice.
Starting with the court side and armed with college interns, Kennedy made 20 years of judgment liens available in an online system which drastically transformed the office and was also a big tangible benefit for constituents. Their access increased tremendously from having to physically go to the office and thumb through page after page to find a specific piece of information. From there, his office scanned court files dating back to 1856.
Next, Kennedy did something similar for land records, again scanning documents all the way back to 1856. That would be an impressive enough modernization step on its own, but Kennedy then enlisted the help of NASA to get a geographic information system team created to develop a map with layers of information from property records and other county sources.
The office hasn’t remained stagnant after a blitz of initial implementations; just this past summer, Kennedy started recording land titles on a system that resembles a blockchain, albeit with some additional controls compared to a truly decentralized blockchain. He credits all of this innovation on having a ‘definiteness of purpose’ and connecting with non-government entities and constituents.
Kennedy and Wise County, VA are a shining example of the progress that can be made in a myriad of government offices, without regard for size or past ways of conducting business. We’ve seen many other examples of County and Court administrators across the country taking initiative to digitize and expand access to their records.
Extract’s software automates the process of getting those records properly indexed or stripped of personally identifiable information through redaction. Like Mr. Kennedy, though, we’re always looking to partner with government offices to find a way to solve whatever document workflow problem they might have. Please reach out if you’d like to do some problem solving.
About the Author: Chris Mack
Chris is a Marketing Manager at Extract with experience in product development, data analysis, and both traditional and digital marketing. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in English from Bucknell University and has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. A passionate marketer, Chris strives to make complex ideas more accessible to those around him in a compelling way.