How do public officials manage public records when it takes the form of e-mails, photographs, maps, electronic printouts, and copies of all of those?
And who has access to the records of public bodies, which includes departments, board, commissions and committees of any tax-supported public entity?
Dewey-Humboldt Town Manager William Emerson asked the Arizona Ombudsman Office to train town staff and opened the all-day session to staff from other municipalities. About 15 people attended a morning session dedicated to Open Meeting Law, and an afternoon session that included Public Records Law and Records Management.
Creating and using documents and records are not difficult. When it comes to saving them in an economical and efficient manner things can get complicated, said Jerry Kirkpatrick, Records Management specialist with the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records.
"A records management person spends a lot of time in the basement, and they are usually rather dusty," Kirkpatrick said.
While all records have value to the organization that creates or receives them, not all have permanent value that warrants preservation in archives. All have specific retention periods before they can be destroyed or disposed.
Documents with historical value can be saved two ways - on acid-free paper or on microfilm. When stored in the right temperature and humidity conditions, microfilm can last 500 years, Kirkpatrick said.
The whole basis for saving public records is accountability, said Assistant Ombudsman Liz Hill.
Preserving records allows the public to keep track of what government officials and employees do and how they spend the taxpayers' money. The public has access to that information, with only a few exceptions.
Hill said that some records are deemed confidential by law, such as tax returns, vital records, student education records, and medical records. The Arizona Revised Statutes offers protections for peace officers, judges, code enforcement officers, corrections and probation officers, and victims of domestic violence or stalking who have an order of protection or injunction against harassment.
The standard in deciding to release sensitive information is whether its release would have an adverse impact on the government and the public; or whether the disclosure of information would invade an individual's privacy and outweigh the public's right to know.
"A 'Confidential' stamp, just because you want to keep a document confidential, isn't sufficient," Hill said. "Inconvenience and embarrassment do not preclude disclosure."
As of Sept. 26, new legislation states that disciplinary actions, including employee responses, which involve public officers or employees of the public body, are open for inspection. Hill said the law is very clear what is a disciplinary record and what is a personnel file, although disciplinary records are often included in personnel files.
Kirkpatrick talked about electronic records and e-mail. While there are some security issues, such as viruses, hackers, and forwarded messages, e-records are nice because they take up little space, and can be quickly retrieved and easily attached to an e-mail.
When saving e-mails, people need to also save the "envelope" information, he said. This includes who sent the mail, when they sent it, and the list of all other individuals on the distribution list, not just a group name.
The Town of D-H uses its Website to post agendas, minutes and packets for council and commission meetings. Town officials must keep a log and record when they post and when they remove these documents.
In addition to D-H town officials, Chino Valley, Clarkdale, and Williams sent their clerks and administrative assistants to learn from the presentation.
