Wright County board adopts updated data-retention policy; schedules workshop and cancels early-September meetings

Clay, an administration staff member, briefed the board on Wright County's annual data policy review and proposed updates to data-retention and records-request procedures. He said the county completed a state-statutory data inventory identifying 439 distinct record types and noted a marked increase in public-record requests: 288 in 2023, 366 in 2024, 534 in 2025, and 335 requests so far in 2026 (on pace for over 600).

Clay described mostly clerical changes to the policy, including routing requests through the county's NextRequest portal to standardize intake and an added provision allowing staff to pause a request when they ask requesters for clarification or identifying information and do not receive a timely response. "Sometimes we have to ask for identifying information if people are requesting personal data. And if we don't receive responses to that, then we pause those requests," he said.

The Chair moved to approve the updated data policy; the motion was seconded and approved unanimously. Separately, the board voted to change the Aug. 11 workshop time to noon and to cancel the Sept. 1 board meeting and the Sept. 8 workshop; all scheduling motions passed unanimously.

Staff said the policy changes aim to streamline public-request processing and reduce administrative burden while preserving access. The county will implement the portal changes and the pause procedure as written in the updated policy.