REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on Recommendations from Governance and Ethics Committee to Amend Council Policy 046 entitled "Mayor and Council Public Records Policy" and Amend Email Retention from 90 days to two years for City Councilmembers
Report
BACKGROUND
At the March 4, 2024 Governance and Ethics Committee (Committee), the Committee discussed the policy on email retention. This agenda item was carried over from the approved 2023 Governance and Ethics Committee workplan. Staff presented information on the current policies pertaining to public records and email retention for the Committee for review and discussion.
In addition to email retention, the Committee also discussed the options to consider retention of text messages on City devices for a specific duration of time. City staff is currently analyzing the capabilities to retain text messages and the costs and feasibility of those options. City staff will return to the Governance and Ethics Committee with an informational report pertaining to text messages as a public record and its retention policy at a future Committee meeting.
After a discussion on the retention of public records, the Governance and Ethics Committee recommends amending the email retention from 90 days to two years for the Mayor and City Councilmembers and updating Council Policy 046 to include these proposed changes. This item is being brought forth to the full City Council for consideration and approval as recommended by the Governance and Ethics Committee.
DISCUSSION
As background, there are two current policies that provide information on public records and email retention which include Council Policy 046 ("Mayor and Council Public Records Policy") (Attachment 1) and City Manager Directive (CMD) 42 Email Retention Policy (Attachment 2).
Council Policy 046 ("Mayor and Council Public Records Policy")
Council Policy 046 was established to make clear what records created, received, or retained by the Mayor and the Counci...
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