RECORDS MANAGEMENT TRAINING City of Oregon City

INTRODUCTION TO RECORDS MANAGEMENT

Why Records Management? To Ensure Regulatory Compliance  Comply with laws and regulations that define program.  Non-compliance could result in severe fines, penalties or other legal consequences.  To Minimize Litigation Risks  Reduce the liabilities associated with document disposal by providing for their systematic, routine disposal in the normal course of business.

Why Records Management? To Safeguard Essential Information  Identify essential records and develop a plan for protection in the event of disaster. To Support Better Management Decision Making By implementing a citywide file organization, including indexing and retrieval capability, staff can obtain and assemble pertinent information quickly for current decisions and future business planning purposes.

What is a Public Record? "Public record" means any information that is prepared, owned, used, or retained by a City; relates to an activity, transaction, or function of the City; is necessary to satisfy the fiscal, legal, administrative or historical policies, requirements, or needs of the City. ORS (5)

“Public record” does not include the following: ORS (d) Extra copies of a document, preserved only for convenience of reference. (e) A stock of publications. (f) Messages on voice mail or on other telephone message storage and retrieval systems. See ORS (5)(b) for others. What is a Public Record?

Public Records Requests  Any public record may be requested at any time unless specifically exempt by ORS  In addition to files, the public can request your , calendar, or notebooks.  The City has a formal public records request policy, these requests are tracked by the Recorder’s Office.  Always direct these requests to the form and policy located here: and-form

The Life Cycle of a Record

What is a Records Retention Schedule? The State Archivist has approved a schedule of records retention for use by all municipalities in the State of Oregon. The State Archivist is the only legal authority in the state to grant permission to destroy public records; retention cannot be negotiated by union contract or arbitrarily set by any public entity. All records that are generated in the normal course of business are assigned a retention. oar_166/166_200.html oar_166/166_200.html

The retention determines if, or when, the records can be destroyed. The schedule provides mandatory instructions for what to do with records (and non-record materials) no longer needed for current business. Records retention and disposal should occur at regular intervals in the normal course of business of the department. What is a Records Retention Schedule?

OAR ’s The General Schedule addresses most record types at the City program level. Retentions are stated as “minimum retention”; the city may keep longer (within reason), but assumes the legal risk by doing so. Reasons for longer retention should be well documented. The Oregon City Commission has mandated that we use the State’s General Records Retention Schedule for Cities.

Retention schedules pertain to the original record. not Convenience copies should be retained as needed- not to exceed the life of the original record (copies can be discoverable in a court proceeding) What is a Records Retention Schedule?

Other Points To Know: All records which may be used in a financial audit/examination must be kept until after such audit/examination is completed and all claims, or audit finding are resolved. Also, once your department is notified of a pending litigation, all records destruction for records pertinent to the litigation must cease. Keep all records that may be used in pending or current litigation until its settlement.

Other Points To Know: Courts have imposed penalties on entities that failed to have current records retention schedules or failed to follow established procedures to manage and safeguard records properly. Dismissal of cases, fines and sanctions has been imposed for failure to produce required records. If records are willfully withheld or the entity cannot demonstrate a good faith effort to find them, in some extreme cases criminal sanctions have been imposed.

Under Oregon’s public records law, many messages are clearly public records. The definition of public records in ORS includes any “information that is prepared, owned, used, or retained by the City, relates to an activity, transaction, or function of the City, etc.”...The form that information takes is irrelevant – whether it’s paper, electronic, media-type, photographs, etc. This includes .

Although some messages may not fall under the definition of public record, when creating it is safest to assume the message is a public record. Since most messages are public records, the only privacy an employee can expect is that provided through disclosure exemptions. The privacy allowed for government employees using government e- mail systems is minimal.

The Outlook In-Box should not be used for storage of s. If an has value it should be either: moved to an Outlook folder (one you have created), or saved in the appropriate file. Remember, this also applies to attachments!! The Sender is responsible for managing the official record. The sender is the custodian. It is the responsibility of the holder of the official record to make sure the file is updated. Remember, is managed by the content of the message.

Identify what documentation needs to be kept for each function your department performs. Utilize the retention schedule for assistance. Examine workflow. Designate a record copy of each document, deliverable, product, or other record and keep it in an official file. Control copy distribution. Process Improvements Department Level

Make someone responsible for the official file and put that responsibility in his or her performance standards. Develop and implement a file plan for both paper & electronic records- make it part of policy, everyone must follow file plan. Break your files at the end of each year or close of a project and start new files. File reference materials separately from official records. Process Improvements Department Level

Process Improvements Department Level File on a regular basis. Hold records clean-up days at least once a year. Retire inactive records to the Records Center. Maintain an inventory of what records you have and where they are located. Purge duplicates, copies and drafts as soon as not needed. Consider doing a department self-evaluation (audit & compliance) to define strong/weak processes.

OREGON CITY NOTES Records destruction must be approved by the City Manager. Every department needs a Records Liaison, they manage the program at the department level. Electronic record-keeping is encouraged!

HPRM WEBDRAWER - REPLACING PAPERVISION

PAPERVISION – WEBDRAWER

IN CONCLUSION…  We all create public records every day.  We are all responsible for managing our records.  The City has a formal procedure for public records requests.  There is also a formal procedure for records destructions.  And if all else fails….