The definitions contained in section 201.003 of the Texas Local Government Code, as amended, are herein adopted save and except for the definition of “records management officer.”
Records management officer.
The records management officer means the city secretary or the city secretary’s designee.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)
(a) 
The city secretary is authorized to establish and administer the records management program for the city pursuant to legal, fiscal, administrative, and archival requirements.
(b) 
The city secretary or city secretary’s designee is hereby named records management officer.
(c) 
The city secretary shall implement 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 results:
(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 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.
(d) 
The requirements of this article shall be known and may be cited as the “Records Management Program of the City of Midlothian, Texas,” providing for the proper and efficient management of the municipal records of the city.
(e) 
The citizens of the city have a right to expect efficient and cost-effective government. Recognizing the importance of city records in the lives of all citizens, the efficient management of city records is necessary to the effective and economic operation of the city, the preservation of records of permanent value is necessary to provide the people of the state with resources concerning their history and to document their rights of citizenship and property, and the establishment of uniform standards and procedures for the maintenance, preservation, electronic storage, or other disposition of city records is necessary to fulfill the higher public purpose.
(f) 
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.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)
(a) 
All city records, as defined herein are hereby declared to be property of the city. No city official or employee has, by virtue of position, any personal or property right to such records even though he or she may have developed or compiled them.
(b) 
The unauthorized destruction, removal from files, or use of city records is prohibited.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)
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 act;
(B) 
Prepare and file with the director and librarian amended schedules as needed to reflect new records created or received by the city; and
(C) 
Prepare or direct the preparation of requests for authorization to destroy records not on an approved control schedule as provided by the act, of requests to destroy the originals of permanent records that have been saved electronically, 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, electronic storage, and destruction of records is carried out in accordance with the policies and procedures of the city’s record management program and requirements of state law;
(7) 
Disseminate to the city council and custodian’s 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;
(8) 
In cooperation with custodians, establish procedures to ensure that the handling of records in any context of the records management officer or those under the officer’s authority is carried out with due regard for:
(A) 
The duties and responsibilities of custodians that may be imposed by law; and
(B) 
The confidentiality of information in records to which access is restricted by law.
(9) 
Report annually to the city council on program effectiveness;
(10) 
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;
(11) 
Carry out destruction and transfers that are required by records schedules, and carry out electronic storage tasks when staff and central facility becomes available;
(12) 
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 electronic storage program;
(13) 
Develop a citywide forms design and control system; and
(14) 
Establish in cooperation with other responsible city officials a disaster plan for each city office and department to insure maximum availability of records for re-establishing operations quickly and with minimum disruption and expense.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)
The city council shall:
(1) 
Establish, promote, and support an active and continuing program for the efficient and economical management of all city records;
(2) 
Cause policies and procedures to be developed for the administration of the program under the direction of the records management officer;
(3) 
Facilitate the creation and maintenance of city records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the city and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the city, the state, and persons affected by the activities of the city government;
(4) 
Facilitate the identification and preservation of city records that are of permanent value;
(5) 
Facilitate the identification and protection of essential city records;
(6) 
Cooperate with the commission in its conduct of statewide records management surveys; and
(7) 
Review records control schedules, or amended schedules, as it considers necessary.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)
Custodians of records in the city shall:
(1) 
Cooperate with the records management officer in carrying out the policies and procedures established by the city for the efficient and economical management of records and in carrying out requirements under the act;
(2) 
Adequately document the transaction of city business and the services, programs, and duties for which the custodian and the custodian’s staff are responsible;
(3) 
Maintain the records in the custodian’s care and carry out their preservation, electronic storage, destruction, or other disposition only in accordance with the policies and procedures of the city’s records management program and the requirements of the act and rules adopted thereunder;
(4) 
Designate records officers within their offices and provide the records management officer the names of the designees and all persons working under their supervision, such records officers to report directly to the custodian in their department on matters relating to the records management program and have full access to all files in their respective departments; and
(5) 
State law relating to the duties, other responsibilities, or recordkeeping requirements of a custodian of records does not exempt the custodian or the records in the custodian’s care from the application of this article or rules adopted by the state under the Local Government Records act (the “act”), and may not be used by the custodian as a basis for refusal to participate in the city’s records management program.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)
(a) 
Electronic storage.
The maintenance of city record data in the form of digital electronic signals on a computer hard disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, or similar machine-readable medium.
(b) 
Source document.
The city record from which city record data is obtained for electronic storage. The term does not include backup copies of the data in any media generated from electronic storage.
(c) 
Any city record data may be stored electronically in addition to or instead of source documents in paper or other media, subject to the requirements of the act and rules adopted under it.
(d) 
The city will be subject to the rules established by the commission for standards and procedures for electronic storage and will be subject to the provisions of chapter 205 of the act.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)
The public shall have access to information stored electronically to which they are entitled under law. Such copied records shall be placed in conveniently accessible files and the public shall be allowed to use, examine, exhibit or project or enlarge the same upon request and during regular office hours.
(Ordinance 2016-24 adopted 9/27/16)