HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Revisions to Records Retention Schedule RESOLUTION NO. 11-347
RESOLUTION ADOPTING REVISIONS TO THE
RECORDS RETENTION SCHEDULE
FOR THE CITY OF AMES, IOWA
WHEREAS, the City's official Records Retention Schedule (RRS) is intended to answer
questions about what documents are to be kept, by whom, and for what period of time, and this
schedule was initially adopted by Resolution No. 98-143 on April 14, 1998; and,
WHEREAS,the objective of the City's Records Management Program is to provide the right
information at the right place at the right time to the right person at the lowest possible cost; and,
WHEREAS,in order to allow for the utmost accuracy and efficiency,it is imperative that the
RRS list all records currently being retained by each department; and,
WHEREAS, the key to a successful Records Management Program is ongoing
implementation of the Retention Schedule, and it was determined in early 2009 that the RRS was
not being kept up-to-date; and,
WHEREAS, a Process Improvement Team was then formed in January 2009 to address that
issue, and a Charter was devised with Records Stewards named throughout the organization; and,
WHEREAS, on March 25, 2009, all Records Custodians and Stewards attended a process
improvement kick-off meeting, and at that time, a goal for compliance was aggressively set for
July 1, 2010; and,
WHEREAS, after each department created its Plan for Compliance,the scope of the project
(i.e., how many records needed to be added to the Schedule and how long the update was going to
take)was realized; and,
WHEREAS, the next step for each Records Steward was to manually inventory all of the
records in his/her department; and,
WHEREAS,this proved to be very time-consuming,and it was soon realized that the July 1,
2010, compliance date was not achievable; and,
WHEREAS,a complete re-write of the Schedule was going to be necessary,and the updating
of the RRS consisted of the following steps: 1) inventorying the records of every department/
division; 2) appraising the value of each record according to its administrative, fiscal, legal, and/or
historical value; 3) determining the retention period based on Iowa Code requirements; and, 4)
ascertaining whether the record would be kept on-site or stored elsewhere until destroyed; and,
WHEREAS,ultimately,the final step was a review by the Legal Department to ensure Code
compliance; and,
WHEREAS,all steps have not been completed and the updated Records Retention Schedule
is now ready for Council approval; and,
WHEREAS, once the revised RRS is adopted by the City Council, each Records Steward
will be responsible for maintaining it and educating other personnel in his/her department on its
implementation.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Ames, Iowa,
that the revised Records Retention Schedule is hereby approved as attached hereto and made a
portion hereof by this reference.
ADOPTED THIS 12`h day of July, 2011.
Diane R. Voss, City Clerk Ann H. Campbell, Mayor
Introduced by: Davis
Seconded by: Mahayni
Voting aye: Davis, Mahayni, Larson, Orazem
Voting nay: None Absent: Goodman, Wacha
Resolution declared adopted and signed by the Mayor this 12 day of July, 2011.
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