Department head
means an employee who by ordinance or administrative policy is in charge of an office of the city that creates or receives records.
Essential record
means any record of the city necessary to the resumption or continuation of its operations in an emergency or disaster, to the re-creation of its legal and financial status, or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to the people of the city.
Municipal record
means all documents, papers, letters, books, maps, photographs, sound or video recordings, microfilm, magnetic tape, electronic media, or other information-recording media, regardless of physical form or characteristic and regardless of whether public access to them is open or restricted under the laws of the state, created or received by the city or any of its officers or employees pursuant to law or in the transaction of public business. The municipal records of the city and [sic] shall be created, maintained, and disposed of in accordance with the provisions of this article or procedures authorized by it and in no other manner.
Permanent record
means any record of the city for which the retention period on a records control schedule is given as permanent.
Records control schedule
means a document prepared by or under the authority of the records management officer listing the records maintained by the city, their retention periods, and other records disposition information that the records management program may require.
Records management
means 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.
Records management officer
means the person designated in section 1.06.004 of this article.
Retention period
means 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.
All municipal records as defined in section 1.06.001 of this article are hereby declared to be the property of the city. No municipal 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.
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 municipal records through a comprehensive system of integrated procedures for their management from creation to ultimate disposition, consistent with the requirements of the Texas Local Government Records Act and accepted records management practice.
The city clerk, and the successive holders of said office, shall serve as records management officer for the city. As provided by state law, each successive holder of the office shall file his or her name with the director and librarian of the state library within thirty days of the initial designation or of taking up the office, as applicable.
In addition to other duties assigned in this article, the records management officer shall:
(1) 
Administer the records management program and provide assistance to department heads in its implementation;
(2) 
Plan, formulate, and prescribe records disposition systems, standards and procedures;
(3) 
In cooperation with department heads identify essential records and establish a disaster plan for each municipal office and department to ensure maximum availability of the records in order to re-establish operations quickly and with minimum disruption and expense;
(4) 
Develop procedures to ensure the permanent preservation of the historically valuable records of the city;
(5) 
Establish standards for filing and storage equipment and for recordkeeping supplies;
(6) 
Study the feasibility of and, if appropriate, establish a uniform filing system and a forms design and control system for the city;
(7) 
Monitor records retention schedules and administrative rules issued by the state library and archives commission to determine if the records management program and the municipality’s records control schedules are in compliance with state regulations;
(8) 
Disseminate to the city council and department heads information concerning state laws and administrative rules relating to local government records;
(9) 
Ensure that the maintenance, preservation, microfilming, destruction, or other disposition of the records of the city is carried out in accordance with the procedures of the records management program and the requirements of state law; and
(10) 
Maintain records on the volume of records destroyed under approved records control schedules or through records destruction authorization requests, the volume of records microfilmed or stored electronically, and the estimated cost and space savings as the result of such disposal or disposition.
In addition to other duties assigned in this article, department heads shall:
(1) 
Cooperate with the records management officer in carrying out the procedures established in the city for the efficient and economical management of records and in carrying out the requirements of this article and state law;
(2) 
Adequately document the transaction of government business and the services, programs, and duties for which the department head and his or her staff are responsible; and
(3) 
Maintain the records in his or her care and carry out their preservation, microfilming, destruction, or other disposition only in accordance with the procedures of the records management program of the city and the requirements of this article and state law.
(a) 
The records management officer shall maintain the records control schedule, listing all records series created or received by the department and the retention period for each series, as an essential part of a records management program for the city, and update the schedule as necessary.
(b) 
The records control schedule shall be binding on all offices, departments, divisions, programs, commissions, bureaus, boards, committees, or similar entities of the city and records shall be created, maintained, stored, microfilmed, or disposed of in accordance with the schedule.
(c) 
Each records control schedule shall be monitored and amended as needed by the records management officer on a regular basis to ensure that it is in compliance with records retention schedules issued by the state and that it continues to reflect the recordkeeping procedures and needs of the department and the records management program of the city.
(d) 
Before its adoption a records control schedule or amended schedule for a department must be approved by the department head and the city council.
(e) 
Before its adoption a records control schedule must be submitted to and accepted for filing by the director and librarian as provided by state law. If a schedule is not accepted for filing, the schedule shall be amended to make it acceptable for filing. The records management officer shall submit the records control schedules to the director and librarian.
(a) 
A records control schedule for a department that has been approved and adopted under section 1.06.007 shall be implemented by department heads. Department heads are responsible for compliance with the procedures of the records management officer, to include his or her submission, review and authorization, prior to any destruction of records.
(b) 
A record whose retention period has expired on a records control schedule shall be destroyed unless an open records request is pending on the record, the subject matter of the record is pertinent to a pending lawsuit, or the department head requests in writing to the records management officer that the record be retained for an additional period.
A record that has not yet been listed on an approved records control schedule may be destroyed if its destruction has been approved in the same manner as a record destroyed under an approved schedule and the records management officer has submitted to and received back from the director and librarian an approved destruction authorization request.
(Ordinance 0046 adopted 9/14/93; Ordinance 0046-1 adopted 4/12/16)