REPORT TO GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS COMMITTEE
SUBJECT
Title
Review and Discussion on Email Retention Policy
Report
BACKGROUND
At the December 5, 2022 Governance and Ethics Committee, the Committee discussed bringing forth an item to review options to consider changing the email retention policy for City Councilmembers. The item was approved as part of the 2023 Governance and Ethics Committee workplan. At the September 11, 2023 Governance and Ethics Committee meeting, staff provided a verbal update on the status of the review of the Email Retention Policy and deferred the item to early 2024.
At this March 4, 2024 Governance and Ethics Committee meeting, staff will provide an update on the current policies pertaining to public records and email retention for the Committee to discuss and provide any recommendations.
DISCUSSION
As background, there are two policies that provide background on public records and email retention which include Council Policy 046 ("Mayor and Council Public Record Policy") (Attachment 1) and City Manager Directive (CMD) 42 Email Retention Policy (Attachment 2),
Council Policy 046 policy was established to make clear what records created, received, or retained by the Mayor and the Councilmembers are considered public records available for disclosure and the policy outlines the following:
1. Any communications, including emails, texts, messages or comments on social media, to or from the Mayor or City Councilmember that pertain to the conduct of public business, regardless of whether or not they were created or sent to a private or public account, are public records that may be disclosed unless otherwise exempt from disclosure.
2. The Mayor and the Councilmembers shall only use official City email and text
accounts to conduct City business.
3. The City shall provide the Mayor and the Councilmembers with separate publicly owned devices such as cell phones and tablets for the conduct of City business.
4. The Mayor and the Councilmembers ...
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