Custodian.
The appointed or elected public officer who by the state
constitution, state law, ordinance, or administrative policy is in
charge of an office that creates or receives local government records.
For the purpose of this article, a custodian is a department head,
under the administration of the city manager or the city council,
who is responsible for all records in his or her department
Essential record.
Any local government record necessary to the resumption or
continuation of government operations in an emergency or disaster,
to the re-creation of the legal and financial status of the city,
or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to the people
of the state.
Local government record.
Any document, paper, letter, book, map, photograph, sound
or video recording, microfilm, magnetic tape, electronic medium, or
other information recording medium, regardless of physical form or
characteristic and regardless of whether public access to it is open
or restricted under the laws of the state, created or received by
city government offices or any of its officers or employees pursuant
to law, including an ordinance, or in the transaction of public business
is hereby declared to be a record of the city, and shall be created,
maintained, and disposed of in accordance with the provisions of this
article and the provisions of the Texas Local Government Records Act.
The term does not include:
(1)
Extra identical copies of documents created only for convenience
of reference or research by officers or employees of the city;
(2)
Notes, journals, diaries, and similar documents created by an
officer or employee of the city for the employee’s personal
convenience;
(5)
Library and museum materials acquired solely for the purposes
of reference or display; or
(6)
Copies of documents in any media furnished to members of the
public in which they are entitled under V.T.C.A., Government Code,
chapter 552, or other state law.
(7)
Any records, correspondence, notes, memoranda, or documents,
other than a final written agreement described by section 2009.054(c),
Government Code, associated with a matter conducted under an alternative
dispute resolution procedure in which personnel of a state department
or institution, local government, special district, or other political
subdivision of the state participated as a party, facilitated as an
impartial third party, or facilitated as the administrator of a dispute
resolution system or organization.
Office.
Any office, department, division, program, commission, bureau,
board, committee, or similar entity of the city.
Permanent record.
A record of permanent value. Any local government record
for which the retention period on a records retention schedule issued
by the commission is given as permanent.
Records control schedule.
A document prepared by or under the authority of a records
management officer listing the records maintained by the city, their
retention periods, and other records disposition information that
the records management program in the city or state law may require.
Records management.
The application of management techniques to the creation,
use, maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposal of records
for the purposes of reducing the costs and improving the efficiency
of recordkeeping. The term includes the development of records control
schedules, the management of filing and information retrieval systems,
the protection of essential and permanent records, the economical
and space-effective storage of inactive records, control over the
creation and distribution of forms, reports, and correspondence, and
the management of micrographics and electronic and other records storage
systems.
Retention period.
The minimum time that must pass after the creation, recording,
or receipt of a record, or the fulfillment of certain actions associated
with a record, before it is eligible for destruction.
(1990 Code, sec. 1.1401; Ordinance
adopting Code)
The office of city secretary is authorized to establish and
administer the records management program for the city pursuant to
legal, fiscal, administrative, and archival requirements, and the
city secretary or his or her designee is hereby named records management
officer. To this end, the city secretary will implement, but not be
limited to, a program to encompass such areas of records management
as are required to preserve and keep in order all books, papers, documents,
records and files of the city council and of the executive departments
to achieve the following goals:
(1) Release
space and reduce the need for storage and filing equipment;
(2) Establish
an efficient retrieval operation for both active and inactive municipal
records;
(3) Provide
for routine disposition of paperwork;
(4) Maintain
total security over municipal records;
(5) Communicate
the need of an effective records management program; and
(6) Secure
a central records storage facility which can be operated and maintained
by records management staff.
(1990 Code, sec. 1.1402)
All city records as defined in section
1.04.001 herein are hereby declared to be property of the city. No city official or employee has, by virtue of his or her position, any personal or property right to such records even though he or she may have developed or compiled them. The unauthorized destruction, removal from files, or use of such records is prohibited.
(1990 Code, sec. 1.1404)
It is hereby declared to be the policy of the city to provide
for efficient, economical, and effective controls over the creation,
distribution, organization, maintenance, use, and disposition of all
city records through a comprehensive system of integrated procedures
for the management of records from their creation to their ultimate
disposition.
(1990 Code, sec. 1.1405)
The records management officer shall have the following duties,
and others as assigned by the city council and as provided by state
law:
(1) Assist
in establishing and developing policies and procedures for a records
management program for the city, which program shall include basic
files management and records disposition policies, systems, standards
and procedures;
(2) Administer
the records management program and provide assistance to custodians
for the purposes of reducing the costs and improving the efficiency
of recordkeeping;
(3) In
cooperation with the custodians of the records:
(A) Prepare and file with the director and librarian the records control
schedules and the list of obsolete records, required by the Local
Government Records Act;
(B) Prepare and file with the director and librarian amended schedules
as needed to reflect new records created or received by the city;
(C) Prepare or direct the preparation of requests for authorization to
destroy records not on an approved control schedule as provided by
the Local Government Records Act, of requests to destroy the originals
of permanent records that have been microfilmed, and of electronic
storage authorization requests;
(4) In
cooperation with custodians, identify and take adequate steps to preserve
city records that are of permanent value;
(5) In
cooperation with custodians, identify and take adequate steps to protect
essential city records;
(6) In
cooperation with custodians, ensure the maintenance, preservation,
microfilming, destruction of records is carried out in accordance
with the policies and procedures of the city’s records management
program and requirements of state law;
(7) Provide
records management advice and assistance to all city offices and departments,
by preparation of manuals of procedure and policies and by on-site
consultation;
(8) Carry
out destruction and transfers that are required by records schedules,
and carry out microphotography tasks when staff and central facility
become available;
(9) Design
and manage the operations of a records center for the low cost storage
of inactive records and as a future site for a centralized micrographics
program;
(10) Develop a citywide forms design and control system;
(11) Establish in cooperation with other responsible city officials a
disaster plan for each city office and department to insure maximum
availability of records for reestablishing operations quickly and
with minimum disruption and expense;
(12) Bring to the attention of the city manager any office not in compliance
with laws or ordinances regarding public access to information or
protection of privacy;
(13) Disseminate to the city council and custodians information concerning
state laws, administrative rules, and the policies of the city relating
to local government records through a records manual which may be
amended from time to time and other means of communication; and
(14) In cooperation with custodians, establish procedures to ensure that
the handling of records in any context of the records management program
by the records management officer or those under the officer’s
authority is carried out with due regard for the duties and responsibilities
of custodians that may be imposed by law and the confidentiality of
information in records to which access is restricted by law.
(1990 Code, sec. 1.1406; Ordinance
adopting Code)