Will County Executive Spotlights Efficiencies at Records Management Department

Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant is spotlighting the accomplishments of the Will County Records Management Department, which underwent several turnaround efforts over the last two years under the leadership of Director Jennifer A. Scharf. Scharf will be retiring on Friday, June 23, 2023 after a 18-year career with County government. 

As Director, Scharf led departmental staff in addressing a backlog of physical records and modernizing the records retention process. These efforts saved the County millions of dollars that would have been spent on a new location to store the growing inventory of physical records. 

“Based on the situation, previous county leadership were told repeatedly that a new facility was needed,” said Bertino-Tarrant. “Millions of dollars were saved because of Jennifer Scharf and her staff, who worked tirelessly to reorganize the building and modernize our systems. We can now use the current space for the foreseeable future and not burden taxpayers with a new building purchase.”

Scharf was appointed as Director of the Records Management Department in 2021, after serving as the Operations Manager for the County Executive Office. Along with addressing the backlog, Scharf also worked with staff to create a new records database and manage the operations of the County Printshop. 

“It has been a pleasure and honor to work for Will County over the past 18 years,” said Scharf. “I loved serving the County and worked in different departments to help people with my customer service skills. Records Management has been the biggest challenge, yet the most rewarding.”

Scharf concluded, “The cleanup was quite a task, but it was accomplished with help from the employees.”

The Records Management Department of Will County consists of three main channels – printshop, physical/electronic records, and scanning services. The department is one of Will County’s major repositories for physical and electronic records from several county departments, including property records and tax documents.

“We were able to accomplish so much with the help of my wonderful employees, especially John Liene from the ICT department, who created a database exclusively for Records Management,” said Scharf. “It saved the County a lot of money, while simplifying finding records in the warehouse. John and I worked endlessly to scan and barcode every box in the warehouse, which was over 15,000 boxes.”

“We are so grateful that Jennifer graciously accepted the challenge that faced us within that Department,” said Bertino-Tarrant. “She has been an amazing asset to Will County.”

Bertino-Tarrant has appointed Christine Lopez Randall to serve as the next Records Management Department Director. Her appointment was approved by the Will County Board at its May Board meeting. Lopez Randall previously served as the Election Judge Coordinator in the Will County Clerk’s Office.