ORD 2012-05 - Records Management UpdateORDINANCE NO. 2012-05
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ARTICLE III. RECORDS, OF CHAPTER 2.
ADMINISTRATION, OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS, TO PROVIDE FOR AN UPDATED RECORDS
MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR THE CITY OF HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS;
AUTHORIZING THE CITY SECRETARY TO ADMINISTER THE RECORDS
MANAGEMENT OFFICE FOR THE CITY; PROVIDING RECORDS
MANAGEMENT DUTIES FOR THE CITY SECRETARY AND CITY COUNCIL,
AND THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES WITH
RESPECT THERETO; PROVIDING FOR THE DESTRUCTION, OR OTHER
DISPOSITION OF ORIGINAL MUNICIPAL PUBLIC RECORDS AND ALL
OTHER MUNICIPAL RECORDS; PROVIDING A REPEALING CLAUSE;
CONTAINING A SAVINGS CLAUSE; PROVIDING A PENALTY CLAUSE; AND
PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF.
WHEREAS the Texas Local Government Records Act required the governing body of each local
government to adopt an ordinance, order or plan establishing a records management
program before January 1, 1991; and
WHEREAS the City of Huntsville established an active and continuing program for the efficient and
economical management of all City of Huntsville records, on December 4, 1990 and now
desires to update the records management program for the efficient management of City
records;
NOW, THEREFORE, be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Huntsville, Texas, that
SECTION 1: That Article III. Records, of Chapter 2, Administration of the Code of Ordinances of the
City of Huntsville, Texas, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Section 2 -40. Definitions.
(a) 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 ".
(b) Records management officer. The records management officer means the City Secretary or the City
Secretary's designee.
State law reference - Texas Local Government Code § 201.003.
Section 2 -41. Records management program, records management officer.
(a) The City Secretary is authorized to establish and administer the records management program
for the City of Huntsville, Texas, 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, recordg-ai--Mirea-Orthe
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 Huntsville, Texas ", providing for the proper and efficient management of
the municipal records of the City of Huntsville, Texas.
(e) The citizens of Huntsville 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,
microfilming, 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 of Huntsville 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.
State law reference - Texas Local Government Code § 203.025 and 201.002.
Section 2 -42. Records as public property; destruction and use of records.
(a) All City records, as defined as Section herein are hereby declared to be property of the City of
Huntsville, Texas. 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.
State law reference - Texas Local Government Code § 201.005.
Section 2 -43. Records management officer duties.
The records management officer shall have the following duties and others as assigned by the City Council,
and as provided by state law:
(a) 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;
(b) administer — the— r-eeords— management— program — and — provide assistance to custodians for —thc
purposes of reducing the costs and improving the efficiency of recordkeeping;
(c) in cooperation with the custodians of the records,
(1) prepare and file with the director and librarian before January 2, 1995, the records control
schedules and the list of obsolete records required by the Act;
(2) prepare and file with the director and librarian amended schedules as needed to reflect
new records created or received by the City;
(3) 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 microfilmed, and of electronic storage authorization
requests;
(d) in cooperation with custodians, identify and take adequate steps to preserve City records that are of
permanent value;
(e) in cooperation with custodians, identify and take adequate steps to protect essential City records;
(f) 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 record
management program and requirements of state law;
(g)
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;
(h) 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. report
annually to the City Council on program effectiveness;
(i) 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;
(j) carry out destruction and transfers that are required by records schedules, and carry out micro-
photography tasks when staff and central facility becomes available;
(k) 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;
(1) develop a City wide forms design and control system; and
(m) 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.
State law reference Texas Local Government Code § 203.023.
Section 2 -44. City Council duties. The City Council shall:
(a) establish, promote, and support an active and continuing program for the efficient and
economical management of all City of Huntsville records;
(b) cause policies and procedures to be developed for the administration of the program under the
direction of the records management officer;
(c) 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;
(d) facilitate the identification and preservation of City records that are of permanent value;
(e) facilitate the identification and protection of essential City records;
(f) cooperate with the commission in its conduct of statewide records management surveys; and
(g) review records control schedules, or amended schedules, as it considers necessary.
State law reference - Texas Local Government Code § 203.021.
Section 2 -45. Custodians of records. Custodians of records in the City shall:
(a) 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;
(b) adequately document the transaction of City business and the services, programs, and duties for
which the custodian and the custodian's staff are responsible;
(c) maintain the records in the custodian's care and carry out their preservation, microfilming,
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;
(d) 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
(e) State law relating to the duties, other responsibilities, or record keeping requirements of a
custodian of records does not exempt the custodian or the records in the custodian's care from the
application of this ordinance or rules adopted by the State under the Local Government Records
Act of 1989, and may not be used by the custodian as a basis for refusal to participate in the City
of Huntsville Records Management Program.
State law reference - Texas Local Government Code § 203.022(a) and 203.022(b).
Section 2 -46. Microfilming of records.
(a) Microfilm. Any roll microfilm, microfiche, and all other formats produced by any method of
microphotography or other means of miniaturization -on -film.
(b) Microfilming. The methods, procedures, and processes used to produce roll microfilm,
mier-ofiehe, -or- other - mier-ophotographic formats.
(c) All microfilming activities by custodians must be carried out under rules established by the
Commission.
(d) All City of Huntsville procedures and materials used for microfilm and microfilming City records
shall be done and acquired under the aegis of state law, and the City will be subject to all the law,
rules, standards and procedures as outlined in the Act.
State law reference - Texas Local Government Code chapter 204.
Section 2 -47. Electronic storage of records.
(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 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.
State law reference - Texas Local Government Code chapter 205.
Section 2 -48. Public access to record copies.
(a) The public shall have access to information in micrographs or microfilm 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.
State law reference - 1 T.A.C. § 113.63(b).
Section 2 -49. Fees for copies of certain records.
The cost for provisions of City records shall not exceed that permitted by the Texas Public Information
Act.
State law reference - 1 T.A.C. § 113.
SECTION 2: Upon the adoption of this ordinance, the City Secretary is directed to file with the director
and librarian within thirty (30) days the name and office of the Records Management
Officer of the City and a copy of this ordinance which updates the Records Management
Program of the City of Huntsville, Texas. See Texas Local Government Code §
203.026(c).
SECTION 3: All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent with the terms of this ordinance are
hereby repealed; provided, however, that such repeal shall be only to the extent of such
inconsistency and in all other respects this ordinance shall be cumulative of other
ordinances regulating and governing the subject matter covered by this ordinance.
SECTION 4: If any provision, section, exception, subsection, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase of
this ordinance or the application of same to any person or set of circumstances, shall for
an-y- reason -be - held - unconstitutional, void- or- invalid,-such- invalidity- shall not- affect the
validity of the remaining provisions of this ordinance or their application to other persons
or sets of circumstances and to this end all provisions of this ordinance are declared to be
severable.
SECTION 5: Any person who shall intentionally violate any provision of this ordinance shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not
more than two hundred ($200) dollars.
SECTION 6: This Ordinance, being a penal ordinance, becomes effective ten (10) days after its
date of passage by the City Council, as provided by Article 4.14 of the Charter of the City of
Huntsville, Texas.
Passed and approved, this, the 13th day of December 2011.
THE CITY OF HUNTSVILLE
ac Woodward, Mayor
ATTEST:
oodward, City Secretary
APP ' O Y AS TO FORM:
Schneider, City Attorney
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not
more than two hundred ($200) dollars.
SECTION 6: This Ordinance, being a penal ordinance, becomes effective ten (10) days after its
date of passage by the City Council, as provided by Article 4.14 of the Charter of the City of
Huntsville, Texas.
Passed and approved, this, the 13th day of December 2011.
ATTEST:
Lee Woodward, City Secretary
APP ' 0 AS TO FORM:
Schneider, City Attorney
THE CITY OF HUNTSVILLE
Mac Woodward, Mayor