AgdaPkt 2012-04-09 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6.3.C. - Page 1 RE PO RT To the Honorable Mayor and City Council From the Cit Mana er April 9, 2012 SUBJECT New Citywide Records Retention Schedule for the City of Redwood City RECOMMENDATION Adopt a Resolution Establishing a New Citywide Records Retention Program BACKGROUND A records retention schedule is a listing of all record types that an agency produces or maintains and a timetable for maintenance and destruction of said records. A records retention program assists an organization by identifying record types that require long term or temporary storage, have historic or research value, or should be destroyed because they no longer have administrative, fiscal, or legal value. When documents are no longer needed, state law permits the destruction of public records in accordance with a specified procedure. On an as needed basis, a head of a department may seek authorization from the legislative body and from the city attorney to destroy records. Alternatively, a city may choose to establish a record retention schedule that authorizes destruction on an on-going basis provided destruction is accomplished in accordance with established timeframes and in compliance with law including written permission of the city attorney (Cal. Gov't Code § 34090). ANALYSIS The City Council established a records management program in April 2010 pursuant to Resolution No. 15017 that would permit on-going retention and destruction in accordance with the schedule and subject to obtaining written permission of the City Attorney. After working with the program, staff determined that it could make the schedule even more user-friendly by making the schedule easier to understand and to apply. Accordingly, the proposed program would identify a department as the office of record — and therefore responsible for the original, a more specific records description, a retention period, the type of inedia that can be used to retain a document, and references to the specific statutory authority being relied upon. And, in addition to providing a city-wide schedule, there is a schedule that accounts for documents typically more particularly found in a specific department. For example, the City Attorney's department would be the office of record for litigation files and therefore responsible for maintaining the original file. A department with copies would confirm that the City Attorney's department has the original and then would be expected to destroy copies when no longer needed. The revised records retention schedule also incorporates