§ 2.501. Definitions.

In this division:

City records means all documents, papers, letters, books, maps, photographs, sound or video recordings, microfilm, magnetic tape, electronic media, or other information recording media, regardless of physical form or characteristic, created or received by the city or any of its officers or employees pursuant to law or in the transaction of public business, whether public access to the records is open or restricted under state law. These shall be created, maintained and disposed of in accordance with this division or procedures authorized by this division and in no other manner.

Department head means the officer who, by ordinance, order or administrative policy, is in charge of an administrative unit of the city that creates or receives records.

Essential record means any city record necessary to the resumption or continuation of city operations in an emergency or disaster, to the re-creation of the legal and financial status of the city, or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to the people of the state.

Permanent record means any city record for which the retention period on a records control schedule is given as permanent.

Records control schedule means a document prepared by or under the authority of the records management officer listing the records maintained by the city, their retention periods and other records disposition information which the records management program may require.

Records liaison officers means the persons designated under section 2.509.

Records management means the application of management techniques to the creation, use, maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposal of records for the purposes of reducing the costs and improving the efficiency of recordkeeping. The term includes the development of record control schedules; the management of filing and information retrieval systems; the protection of essential and permanent records; the economical and space-effective storage of inactive records; control over the creation and distribution of forms, reports and correspondence; and the management of micrographics and electronic and other records storage systems.

Records management committee means the committee established in section 2.505.

Records management officer means the person designated in section 2.504.

Records management plan means the plan developed under section 2.506.

Retention period means the minimum time that must pass after the creation, recording or receipt of a record or the fulfillment of certain actions associated with a record before it is eligible for destruction.

(Code 1970, § 2-171; Ord. No. 2007-30, § 1, 5-15-07)

State law reference

Similar provisions, V.T.C.A., Local Government Code, § 201.003.

Cross reference

Definitions and rules of construction generally, §§ 1.002, 1.003.