Records Management: Best Practices for Municipalities

04/10/2023 OMCA Columbus

Records Management – Best Practices for Municipalities

Presented by

Joseph C. Dickman, Jr., MBAFireproof Records Center

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Quick Quiz

• Your City Attorney has just announced that your municipality is being sued and you must locate, retain, and produce “all records” relevant to the matter

• Can you?– Identify the records and their current location– Retrieve them easily and cost-effectively– Ensure the Court that you have produced

everything required

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Facts about Ohio

• 5,200 Local Government Entities– Counties– Cities– Villages– Townships– School Districts– Special Taxing Districts

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Ohio’s Local Government Records Program -- Purpose

• Under the auspices of the Ohio Historical Society– Ensure that you are following Ohio Laws– Save your office time– Save your office storage space– Save your office MONEY

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Records Management

• Information Explosion– Information growing at an exponential rate– Paper – still being generated at ever-increasing

rates– Electronic – Servers, Email, Instant Messaging,

Twitter, PDAs, Notebooks, et. al.

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Why are We Here?

• Continued Compliance Requirements– Ohio Revised Code – section 149.31• The Ohio Historical Society, in addition to its other

functions, shall function as the state archives administration for the state and its political subdivisions

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Definition

• 149.011 ORC -- Definition of a record– Records include any document, device, or item,

regardless of physical form or characteristic, created or received by or coming under the jurisdiction of any public office of the state or its political subdivisions, which serves to document the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the office

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Definition - 2

• 149.011 ORC -- Definition of a public office– Public Office includes any state agency, public

institution, political subdivision, or any other organized body, office, agency, or institution, or entity established by the laws of this state for the exercise of any function of government

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Responsibilities under ORC 149

• Prompt inspection– Keep regular business hours– Cannot charge to inspect records– Anyone can inspect records• Do not have to be an Ohio resident• Do not have to provide a reason to see records• Request does not have to be in writing

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Responsibilities – cont’d.

• Provide copies– Copy fee must be a reasonable amount– Charge only for actual cost of copy– You cannot charge for employee’s time

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Exceptions to the Public Records Law

• 149.43– Medical records– Records pertaining to probation, and parole

proceedings– Trial preparation records– Confidential law enforcement investigatory

records

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Costs of Non-compliance

• Failure to Comply with 149.351– $1,000 per offense– Reasonable attorney fees

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Municipal Records Commission

• Chief Executive Officer (or appointed representative) as chairperson

• Chief Fiscal Officer• Chief Legal Officer• Citizen (appointed by the chairman)• Meet at least once every 6 months

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Records Commission - Functions

• Provide rules for retention and disposal of records

• Review retention schedules and disposal requests submitted by the office

• Provide that procedures are followed for scheduling and disposing of records

• Revise retention schedules• May hire an archivist and a secretary

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Records Commission - Meetings

• Must be open to the public• Public must be given notice that the meeting

is going to occur• Must meet at least once every 6 months

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Obstacles to Compliance

• Need to contain costs– Costs increasing– Budgets shrinking– Where are the $$$$?

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The Financial Mess

• High Unemployment• Decreased Tax Revenues• Budget surplus now a deficit

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What Does That Mean to Me?

• Need Compliance• Need Cost-effectiveness• Solution -- Compliant Records Program that

Includes:– Retention schedule– Off-site Storage– Electronic Records– Secure Destruction

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Steps to a Compliant Program

• Ensure that you have a compliant RM program– Records Inventory / Audit– Retention Schedule Creation– Program Promulgation– Periodic Audits– Continuous Improvement

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How Do I Do It?

• Do an inventory of your existing records– Physical Inventory – File cabinets, boxes– Search everywhere– System Inventory• Servers• Desktop PCs• Mobile PCs and PDAs• Email

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Records Analysis

• Review for various Retention needs– Operational / Administrative– Fiscal (Audit & Tax)– Legal / Regulatory– Historical

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Review Retention Schedule

• What has changed? • What did you miss the last time?• Are your retention times consistent with

current: – Operational needs– Legislative and regulatory requirements– Fiscal needs (audit and tax)– Historical needs

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Create / Revise Retention Schedule

• Ensure that you have accounted for all records identified in the inventory (delete any no longer created / retained)

• Do records analysis for retention periods– Operational / Administrative need– Legal / Regulatory need– Fiscal need– Historical need

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Create / Revise Retention Schedule - 2

• Assign appropriate retention period– Generally longest of the different requirements– May be event based– Do not inflate for “just in case”

• Obtain approvals through Ohio Historical Soc.• Promulgate to all staff• Follow up with periodic audits to ensure compliance– An unaudited program will quickly become non-compliant– Do what your schedule says you will

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Records Disposition

• Follow retention schedule requirements• Dispose of appropriately– Complete RC-3 and wait 15 business days– Shred – Recycle

• Create litigation hold procedures– Ensure that hold is created and enforced in a

timely fashion– Follow up is critical

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Benefits of a Compliant RM Program

• It will save you MONEY– Fewer file cabinets, servers, etc. to buy and

maintain– Less space needed to store unnecessary

information• It will save you TIME– Less time searching through useless information

• It may just save your BUSINESS– Or your client’s business

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Costs of Non-Compliance

• Increased storage costs• Increased search / retrieval costs• Adverse impact on customer service• Potential for adverse audit findings• Potential for adverse litigation result

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Additional Resources

• Ohio Local Government Records Program at OHS: http://www.ohiohistory.org/portal/lgr-p.html

• ARMA International – Association of Records Managers and Administrators www.arma.org

• Columbus Chapter ARMA meets monthly September thru June see www.armacolumbus.org for meetings and other information

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Take Home # 1

• Having a compliant RM program will INCREASE your ROI – (Return on Investment)

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Take Home # 2

• Having a compliant RM program will DECREASE your ROI – (Risk of Incarceration)

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Questions???

• Let me know if I can help• Joseph C. Dickman, Jr., MBA

Fireproof Records Center614-317-9228 – office phone614-419-5210 – mobile phonejdickman@fireproof.com -- email