City worker completes document conversion project

Jay Jensen is not your typical city employee.

He doesn't drive to work, rarely quibbles if he misses that all-important 15-minute break and doesn't get involved in union negotiations.

But the 23-year-old Lodi native can convert computer files faster than most people can type a full page. He's just completed a 16,000-document public records project that may have not even been started if it wasn't for Jensen and his gifted skills.

Although he's been tasked to perform other work, most recently, Jensen has finished converting all the City Council computer files into a new configuration so that the public can have access to them on the Internet.

"It was no small feat," said Janet Hamilton, management analyst for the city. "It was a project made for him."

Jensen has autism and a special knack for numbers.

To convert each document, he had to memorize its numerical title then send it through a conversion process called optical character recognition that converts images to text. It can take more than a minute for each document to be completed.

Jensen said he used the time to take a break, get a drink of water or use the restroom.

"It started fun. Then it got boring," he said.

But Hamilton said he saw doing other work as an invasion. He simply wanted to finish one project at a time.

Jensen's tasks were part of the City Clerk Office's goal to make documents more user-friendly and accessible on the city Web site, www.lodi.gov.

Before, Macintosh computer users were unable to access City Council agendas, minutes, city ordinances, resolutions and even annual budgets. The files date to 1906.

"It can definitely be used for any public documents," Hamilton said.

Jensen, who worked for weeks straight at times doing nothing but conversions, finished the largest part of the project in September, while the completion of this calendar's year of information was done Oct. 31. It went "live" Nov. 3, said Hamilton, Jensen's supervisor.

The project may have not been started had it not been for Jensen, she said. Or, if City Clerk Susan Blackston and Information Systems Director Steve Mann still saw it as a viable project, the duties would have been shared by others in the two departments -- and could have taken years.

Jensen said he's proud people can view the documents on the Internet.

The work he's done for the City Clerk's Office includes tasks most people would consider boring and monotonous. But Jensen said he enjoys doing it because of his computer background, and he likes numbers.

"It's hard to do that kind of project without seeing the end," said Jerry Moore, the city's network administrator. Although he said he didn't work very closely with Jensen, Moore oversaw his duties during the nine-month project.

"For the most part, there was no interaction," Moore said. "Jay knew what he had to do and he just did it."

The project has also saved the city money. By switching from the old system to a new one that will be maintained in-house by the City Clerk's Office, Moore said the $8,000 for maintenance and upkeep has been removed.

It will be maintained and updated by Blackston and Deputy City Clerk Jackie Taylor.

Hamilton said it is cheaper than paying an outside agency.

"We're lucky. Actually, the citizens are lucky."

Jensen, who has been honored as the city's employee of the month, has also worked part time in other departments entering information into a database.

He recently typed codes from plumbing parts for purchasing. And he's the one to thank for the city salary schedule posted on the Web. He typed each job description available to views by clicking on the position title.

In October 2000, right after he was hired by the city, he inputted employee information into an in-house computer system from index cards, Hamilton said.

"He found all the mistakes," she joked, referring to his keen eye for details.

Jensen's skills are so desired, other departments are waiting in line, Hamilton said.

There is also an ongoing project waiting for him in the Parks and Recreation Department. And he recently earned his bookkeeping certificate from San Joaquin Delta College, opening up job opportunities for him in the Finance Department, Hamilton said.

"Needless to say, there are ample prospects for his future in the city of Lodi," she said.

Last Friday, Jensen was helping Hamilton tally United Way donations. Using a calculator, he had to double-check employee math and enter their pledges into the computer on his desk.

Jensen, who graduated from Lodi High School in 1998 and has finished computer classes at Delta, lives in Lodi with his parents, Julie and Jeff. He also has a younger brother, Jon.

Blackston is thankful for Jensen's help on the latest project, being referred to as "e-records."

"We were having difficulties with the old program and it was greatly accelerated (to fix it) to get this going. Now the information is accessible to everyone," she said. "I don't know how we could have ever gotten this done."