BACKGROUND:
Cathedral City selected Gladwell Governmental Services, Inc., an expert in local government records, to upgrade its records management program, including the Record’s Retention Schedule. An upgrade in the existing program was necessary to reduce current and future records storage costs, eliminate duplication of effort, increase efficiency, and take advantage of current technology and changes in law. The last time the City’s Record’s Retention Schedule was updated was in 2015.
DISCUSSION:
The upgrade of the current records management system is driven by many factors, including:
•Limited space in City facilities
•Many departments are filing and storing copies of the same records •Cathedral City produces and manages many permanent records •Technology advancements
•Changes in law
The purpose of the program is to apply efficient and economical methods to the creation, utilization, maintenance, retention, preservation and disposal of all records managed by the City.
The proposed retention periods are in compliance with all laws and are standard business practices for California cities and were written interactively with representatives from all departments participating in the project. They provide clear, specific records descriptions and retention periods, and apply current law and technology to the management of City records. Upon approval of the proposed Records Retention Schedule, the City will begin to move forward with an electronic filing system to further increase efficiency. By identifying which department is responsible for maintaining the original record, establishing clear retention periods for different categories of records, and implementing an electronic filing system, the City will realize savings in labor costs, free-up filing cabinet space and realize operational efficiencies.
On October 12, 2022, during the Study Session meeting, Diane Gladwell of Gladwell Governmental Services, Inc. provided an overview of the purpose of records retention schedules and responded to questions the City Council had related to the same. At that time, there were no proposed changes to the updated schedules provided to the City Council.
Staff is proposing the City Council adopt a Resolution adopting the updated Records Retention Schedule. The Resolution also authorizes the routine destruction of records exceeding their adopted retention period upon the request of the Department Head and the consent in writing of the Department Head, City Clerk, and City Attorney, which is standard business practice for California cities, and authorizes updates to the schedule without further action of the City Council, which is also standard business practice for California cities. Staff is also proposing the City Council, serving as the Board for the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Cathedral City, adopt a Resolution rescinding Resolution SA-2015-02, which adopted a Records Retention Schedule for those documents retained by the Successor Agency; those documents have been incorporated into the updated schedule and are included in the proposed Resolution.
The proposed Resolutions and Records Retention Schedules are attached for Council’s review.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact with this item.