City Council Agenda Report
Meeting Date: July 16, 2024
From: Deborah Harrington, Interim City Clerk
Department: City Clerk
Submitted by: Yonnie Parker, Deputy City Clerk
Subject
Records Retention Schedule Update
Recommendation
Adopt Resolution No. 2024-10 approving the City’s Records Retention Schedule and repealing Resolution No. 2020-15.
Background
The City’s Records Management Program applies efficient and economical methods to the creation, utilization, maintenance, retention, preservation and disposal of records managed by the City. The current Retention Schedule was approved and adopted by City Council on June 2, 2020 by Resolution No. 2020-15. Changes in laws, standards of business practices and the creation of new records in the City necessitated a biennial review of the current schedules.
The City retained the services of Gladwell Governmental Services, Inc. to assist with the records retention schedule legal review, best practices of other agencies and changes in law and updates to the schedules. The updates to the schedules were reviewed interactively with representatives from each department to incorporate current practices and provide clear, specific and relevant records descriptions and appropriate retention periods.
Government Code Section 34090 broadly governs the retention of records in the City however there may be specific regulations that provide for longer retention, and the City may prefer to keep certain records longer than set for in the regulations. The guiding regulations and provision for department preference are noted in the comment field of the schedules.
There are minor additions and clean-up language sparsely throughout the schedules. There are new additions to various department schedules shown in the exhibit to the attachment. There are a few deletions of records due to those records existing in other sections or no longer existing.
When appropriate, the Fire Department records will be updated or deleted as the City no longer has its own Fire Department. Vernon Fire Department records still do exist, therefore their records schedules remain unchanged during this update.
The proposed resolution is presented along with the proposed city-wide schedules in the attachment to this staff report in tracked changes format which provides a clear visual of the changes to the schedules. Upon approval, the Resolution establishes the City’s retention schedule; provides for the routine destruction of records, authorizes minor updates without further Council action; and repeals Resolution No. 2020-15.
Fiscal Impact
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report.
Attachments
1. Resolution No. 2024-10
2. Exhibit A to Resolution No. 2024-10 (redline)