Water Sewer District Case Studies

“The IT Service provider told us to do something about the shared network server.  I had heard another district on a conference call say that FreeDoc ® specializes in digital file management services for water sewer districts for digital and paper records.  We needed help with both.  There were so many old records, duplicate records, short-cuts and obsolete files that it kept our people from seeing files important to their work.  After reviewing their proposal with our district commissioners, we agreed to move forward with the clean-up.

FreeDoc ® came to our location to filter the paper records.  Next, FreeDoc ® connected remotely into our server through a secure connection to inventory, evaluate and identify records past retention.  The entire process was incredibly efficient, fast, and well-communicated.”  

Mike Amburgey, General Manager, Cedar River Water & Sewer District

Background: Located in south King County, this Water Sewer district had accumulated paper Operating, Personnel and Payroll records since the opening.

District engineers and staff were saving electronic files to a shared network server, but not using a consistent file naming process.  Over time, users created folders under folders, under folders, under folders.

To overcome the time lost just to drill down through the directory, engineers created personal ‘short-cuts’.  With each retirement short-cuts were forgotten.  With each server back-up, short-cuts were moved, replaced or recreated around multiple times.  This rendered the folder structure useless.  It made it difficult for engineers and operators to find the information they needed.

Goal: “Reduce System Operator and Engineers time to find records they need.”

Solution: The FreeDoc^® solution was to manually filter the paper records by Type, Date, and Disposition Authority Number (DAN).  Over 110-cubic feet of records were found past retention and documented on a formal destruction schedule for legal disposition.

The solution for the digital records was similar but more technical.  FreeDoc^® was able to digitally inventory the network share drive by File Format, Record Type, Date, and Disposition Authority Number (DAN).

Records past retention were filtered and logged on a formal destruction schedule.  Over 130,000 were evaluated and analyzed in 6-days.  Almost 60% (75,845) of the server files were identified for legal disposition by the customer!

We needed an efficient information system from a knowledgeable provider.  With FreeDoc^® it was night and day.  We are using innovative ways to file and find information to be more efficient.”

Justin Clary, PE General Manager

Background: Located in NW Washington State near the Canadian border, this water sewer district wanted to come to grips with the central issues of Information Management – manual filing. lack of consistency and lack of systems.

Goal: “Reduce time spent finding Systems Operating information so we can increase the time we spend providing services to the public.”

Solution: To re-establish sound policies to file and find enterprise system operation information.  FreeDoc^® helped Lake Whatcom with an on-site Business Analysis and Records Assessment district information flow.  Once completed, the district chose to implement Laserfiche Cloud.

Next up will be a remedial process to perform remedial work upon an aging DocuWare document management system installed many years ago.  When completed the district staff will have a trusted system allowing them to find and access important system operation information.

This is a current project established by the LVMWD Board of Commissioners, January 7, 2025

Background: Las Virgenes Municipal Water District provides potable water, wastewater treatment, recycled water and biosolids composting to more than 75,000 residents in the cities of Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Westlake Village, and unincorporated areas of western Los Angeles County.  The district is highly automated, however, like all agencies, creates ongoing digital files and reports on a common network share drive.  The district also maintains historical paper records, which would benefit from digitizing for reference and protection from loss.

Goal: Assess district needs for a cloud-based document management system able to support ongoing system operations of the district.

Solution: To complete the project, FreeDoc^® Consultants conducted nearly 2-dozen interviews of district staff to assess the needs of individual departments.  Next, will be creation of formal RFP documentation able to provision a broad selection of potential products for the district to choose from.

For our role, FreeDoc^® will provide the district with professional services able to document district needs, write the formal RFP and monitor implementation of a successful pilot system.  We will support the district to ensure information governance of the initial system.

As shown by these case studies, FreeDoc ^® can improve how districts manage and maintain the administrative records of their systems and operations.

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