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Building Trustworthy Systems with Laserfiche: Real-World Insights from Public Sector Leaders
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Over the last two years, California Municipalities have been working toward building Trustworthy Systems. Like any critical IT effort, the combination of people, processes, and technology makes it work. Hence, a trustworthy system comprises the Laserfiche System, the organization's policies, and the activities of the records manager, department heads, and IT.
For this webinar, we are delighted to present with the City Clerk of Indian Wells, Angelica Avila, and the City Clerk, Sabdi Sanchez, of The City of Indio. Sabdi and Angelica shared their file structure and explained their Trustworthy System efforts in detail. Some of the questions asked are excellent, so it’s worth watching to the end.
What You Will Learn
The discussion highlights how small and mid-sized cities are implementing Laserfiche as a trusted, scalable records management system by prioritizing simplicity, staff adoption, and public transparency while planning for long-term preservation and disaster resilience. Speakers emphasized starting with minimal required metadata, intuitive filing structures, and OCR-powered search rather than overengineering templates, enabling staff across departments to easily ingest records. Public-facing portals were rolled out incrementally, supported by outreach efforts such as how-to videos, newsletters, and homepage callouts to shift residents toward self-service records access and reduce staff burden. Collaboration—with IT, neighboring cities, and scanning partners like CPS—was repeatedly cited as critical for success, especially as systems integrate with permitting, finance, and other platforms. The conversation also underscored the importance of balancing digital-first strategies with selective physical preservation for historically significant records, maintaining audit trails, and planning for future migrations to ensure records remain accessible decades from now.
FAQ
What is a trustworthy system?
Answer:
"It obviously has to do with security, integrity, transparency, and of course reliability. The State of California defines it as a combination of techniques, policies, and procedures where a retrieved document cannot differ substantially from the original. Essentially, it is an encrypted, unalterable copy of your files."
- Jaime Dunn
What are some of the things you needed to get department heads on board? Was there a challenge to get any departments on board as you pushed Laserfiche?
Answer:
"Not at all. Much of it has to do with the City Manager being supportive. We are proactive; anything that makes it easier to provide service to the public or internal customers, we do. Since we help departments get their files in order, they generally agree."
- Sabi Sanchez
What did you use to communicate Laserfiche activities? Newsletter, emails, meetings, announcements?
Answer:
"It was more at the director level. We did one-on-ones and meetings with departments. It was very internal with department directors and key staff rather than newsletters."
- Sabi Sanchez
Did you set up a retention workflow to automatically assign retention and destruction dates?
Answer:
"Yes. CPS set up the retention schedule and the dates are already in the system. Folders have tags indicating embedded retention schedules. I set it up to remind me, and I then determine if it needs to be deleted."
- Sabi Sanchez
Will they automatically delete at seven years or just a kind of visual reminder?
Answer:
"We set it up to remind me, and I determine if I need to delete it. It’s better to make sure you know something is getting deleted."
- Sabi Sanchez
Do you complete the destruction/disposition of records that have met retention, or is it up to the department to ensure?
Answer:
"I route everything. I ask departments to fill out forms when records meet the deadline. I review the forms against retention schedules to ensure correct codes, then route it for approval. Once approved, I instruct them to destroy the files and return the destruction record."
- Sabi Sanchez
What process did you have to go through to use Laserfiche Vault as a trusted system for the city to allow you to destroy physical files?
Answer:
"We use the same process for electronic copies as we did for paper. We route a form with the documents to be destroyed and a copy of the retention schedule so the City Attorney can see the reference."
- Sabi Sanchez
Did you have to get something adopted by the City Council that said you could destroy physical files as long as you have them in your Laserfiche Vault?
Answer:
"Yes. When I took it to the Council to approve Laserfiche as a trusted system, we also had to implement the policy. Policies are a requirement for designating a trusted system."
- Sabi Sanchez
How did you start the implementation process for digitizing records?
Answer:
"We started slowly by meeting with key staff and identified records liaisons. We established a digital policy to define how files would be saved, how to identify them, and how to ensure scanning consistency to meet our retention schedule."
- Angelica Avila
What did you do before you had a "trusted system" in place?
Answer:
"We used a "records drive" as a temporary band-aid. Access was strictly limited to myself and the IT manager for deletions or redactions to ensure no one else could remove documents. We eventually transitioned to Laserfiche Cloud around 2021–2022."
- Angelica Avila
Can the public perform full-text or OCR searches for specific policies like parking?
Answer:
"Yes. The public portal allows for keyword searches, and it will pull up anything related to those terms. It is very beneficial for transparency."
- Angelica Avila
How do you handle documents that are not yet ready for public view?
Answer:
"Many documents are currently set to "non-viewable" for the public due to necessary redactions. However, internal staff have licenses that allow them to search and view these documents using the naming conventions we established."
- Angelica Avila
Has recent history changed how you think about disaster recovery and records management?
Answer:
"It has reiterated the importance of going paperless and using cloud storage. Our off-site location is a structure that could come down; having records in the cloud ensures they are preserved regardless of physical disasters."
- Angelica Avila
Does the city use temporary staff or interns to assist with the high volume of scanning?
Answer:
"Yes. Because the city is small, we add temporary employees when we have a high volume of work. Currently, we have a temp who helps during downtime. We show them our digital naming conventions and have them scan documents to a shared drive. From there, myself or the receptionist (who also assists with this) "drag and drop" the files into the system."
- Angelica Avila
