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SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL
MEETING DATE: July 15, 2009 AGENDA ITEM:
DEPARTMENT: City Manager’s Office CITY MANAGER: Dave Anderson
PREPARED BY: Curtis Boone DIRECTOR: Barbara Powell
Records Management Intern Assistant City Manager
Ann Sullivan
City Clerk
SUBJECT: Records Management Program: Resolutions Amending the City’s Records
Retention Schedule and Authorizing Destruction of Certain City Records
RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:
1. Adopt Resolution Amending City’s Records Retention Schedule.
2. Adopt Resolution Authorizing Destruction of Certain City Records.
BACKGROUND:
Following the City Council’s approval of the City’s new records retention schedule in June 2009,
staff has reviewed the City’s records to locate expired records and prepare them for destruction.
Staff has located 187 boxes of expired records that may be destroyed.
In order to comply with state law, processing expired records for destruction is a multi-step process:
1. Staff in each department identify records that have expired in accordance with the approved
records retention schedule.
2. Department directors review and approve the list of records to be destroyed in their
departments.
3. The City Clerk and City Attorney review and approve a combined list of all expired records.
4. The list of records is presented to the City Council along with a resolution authorizing their
destruction. Records may not be destroyed without the authorization of the City Council.
Included in the list of records to be destroyed are certain unneeded payroll records that require an
update to the records retention schedule before they may be destroyed. Staff is requesting that
Council approve the following minor revision to the retention schedule prior to authorizing
destruction of expired records listed in Exhibit A.
As listed in the Payroll division of the Administrative Services section of the records retention
schedule, Payroll Salary and Deduction Registers have a retention period of T+4 (termination plus
four years), requiring the City to maintain them for four years after a given employee’s
termination. Since these records include information on all current City employees, these records
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would need to be retained until four years after all employees listed no longer work for the City.
Following input from the City Attorney, staff is proposing a retention period of AU+5 (five years
after the annual financial audit) as more appropriate for these records. This change would allow
the City to destroy these records five years after the audit of the fiscal year in which they were
created; a separate, permanent records series, Payroll Registers, contains much of the same
information in a condensed form.
The change would be as listed below:
Payroll -
Salary and
Deduction
Registers
T+4
AU+
5
GC 34090; 22 CCR
1085-2; 29 CFR 516.2,
516.5, 516.6; 26 CFR
31.6001-1; LC 1174(d)
X X
Records including garnishments,
adjustments, deduction authorizations, and
PERS (Public Employee Retirement
System) deductions.
Space for storing these confidential records is limited, and updating the retention schedule before
approving the destruction of records will allow staff to destroy these unneeded payroll records.
Once both resolutions have been passed, staff will be able to begin destroying the expired records
as listed in Attachment B, which will help streamline records-related processes at the City of
Saratoga.
FISCAL IMPACTS:
Funding for destruction of records is included in the operating budget. Destroying records could
result in savings through reduced liability in the event of litigation against the City.
CONSEQUENCES OF NOT FOLLOWING THE RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:
The records retention schedule will not be updated, and the City will retain payroll records much
longer than is legally necessary. Records will not be destroyed.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Remove specific records from destruction list and approve with changes.
FOLLOW UP ACTION(S):
Organize City records. Continue development of records management plan.
ADVERTISING, NOTICING AND PUBLIC CONTACT:
Nothing additional.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1 - Resolution Amending the City’s Records Retention Schedule
Attachment 2 - Resolution Authorizing the Destruction of Certain City Records
Attachment 3 - Exhibit A: List of Records to be Destroyed.