LOCAL GOVERNMENT CODE

TITLE 6. RECORDS

SUBTITLE C. RECORDS PROVISIONS APPLYING TO MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER 201. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec. 201.001.  SHORT TITLE.  This subtitle may be cited as the Local Government Records Act.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989.

Sec. 201.002.  PURPOSE.  Recognizing that the citizens of the state have a right to expect, and the state has an obligation to foster, efficient and cost-effective government and recognizing the central importance of local government records in the lives of all citizens, the legislature finds that:
(1)  the efficient management of local government records is necessary to the effective and economic operation of local and state government;
(2)  the preservation of local government records of permanent value is necessary to provide the people of the state with resources concerning their history and to document their rights of citizenship and property;
(3)  convenient access to advice and assistance based on well-established and professionally recognized records management techniques and practices is necessary to promote the establishment of sound records management programs in local governments, and the state can provide the assistance impartially and uniformly;  and
(4)  the establishment of uniform standards and procedures for the maintenance, preservation, microfilming, or other disposition of local government records is necessary to fulfill these important public purposes.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989.

Sec. 201.003.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subtitle:
(1)  "Commission" means the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
(2)  "Custodian" means the appointed or elected public officer who by the state constitution, state law, ordinance, or administrative policy is in charge of an office that creates or receives local government records.
(3)  "Designee" means an employee of the commission designated by the director and librarian as provided by Section 441.167, Government Code.
(4)  "Director and librarian" means the executive and administrative officer of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
(5)  "Essential record" means any local government record necessary to the resumption or continuation of government operations in an emergency or disaster, to the re-creation of the legal and financial status of the government, or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to the people of the state.
(6)  "Governing body" means the court, council, board, commission, or other body established or authorized by law to govern the operations of a local government.  In those instances in which authority over an office or department of a local government is shared by two or more governing bodies or by a governing body and the state, the governing body, for the purposes of this subtitle only, is the governing body that provides most of the operational funding for the office or department.
(7)  "Local government" means a county, including all district and precinct offices of a county, municipality, public school district, appraisal district, or any other special-purpose district or authority.
(8)  "Local government record" means any document, paper, letter, book, map, photograph, sound or video recording, microfilm, magnetic tape, electronic medium, or other information recording medium, regardless of physical form or characteristic and regardless of whether public access to it is open or restricted under the laws of the state, created or received by a local government or any of its officers or employees pursuant to law, including an ordinance, or in the transaction of public business.  The term does not include:
(A)  extra identical copies of documents created only for convenience of reference or research by officers or employees of the local government;
(B)  notes, journals, diaries, and similar documents created by an officer or employee of the local government for the officer's or employee's personal convenience;
(C)  blank forms;
(D)  stocks of publications;
(E)  library and museum materials acquired solely for the purposes of reference or display;
(F)  copies of documents in any media furnished to members of the public to which they are entitled under Chapter 552, Government Code, or other state law;  or
(G)  any records, correspondence, notes, memoranda, or documents, other than a final written agreement described by Section 2009.054(c), Government Code, associated with a matter conducted under an alternative dispute resolution procedure in which personnel of a state department or institution, local government, special district, or other political subdivision of the state participated as a party, facilitated as an impartial third party, or facilitated as the administrator of a dispute resolution system or organization.
(9)  "Office" means any office, department, division, program, commission, bureau, board, committee, or similar entity of a local government.
(10)  "Permanent record" or "record of permanent value" means any local government record for which the retention period on a records retention schedule issued by the commission is given as permanent.
(11)  "Record" means a local government record.
(12)  "Records control schedule" means a document prepared by or under the authority of a records management officer listing the records maintained by a local government or an elective county office, their retention periods, and other records disposition information that the records management program in each local government or elective county office may require.
(13)  "Records management" means the application of management techniques to the creation, use, maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposal of records for the purposes of reducing the costs and improving the efficiency of recordkeeping.  The term includes the development of records control schedules, the management of filing and information retrieval systems, the protection of essential and permanent records, the economical and space-effective storage of inactive records, control over the creation and distribution of forms, reports, and correspondence, and the management of micrographics and electronic and other records storage systems.
(14)  "Records management officer" means the person identified under Section 203.001 or designated under Section 203.025 as the records management officer.
(15)  "Records retention schedule" means a document issued by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission under authority of Subchapter J, Chapter 441, Government Code, establishing mandatory retention periods for local government records.
(16)  "Retention period" means the minimum time that must pass after the creation, recording, or receipt of a record, or the fulfillment of certain actions associated with a record, before it is eligible for destruction.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989;  Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 5.95(90), eff. Sept. 1, 1995;  Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 31, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1997;  Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1352, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.

Sec. 201.004.  RECORD BOOKS.  If a state law relating to the keeping of records by a local government officer or employee requires the records to be kept in a "book," "record book," or "well-bound book," or contains any similar requirement that a record be maintained in bound paper form, the record whose creation is called for in the provision may be maintained on microfilm or stored electronically in accordance with the requirements of Chapters 204 and 205 and rules adopted under those chapters unless the law specifically prohibits those methods.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989.

Sec. 201.005.  DECLARATION OF RECORDS AS PUBLIC PROPERTY;  ACCESS.  (a)  Local government records created or received in the transaction of official business or the creation or maintenance of which were paid for by public funds are declared to be public property and are subject to the provisions of this subtitle and Subchapter J, Chapter 441, Government Code.
(b)  A local government officer or employee does not have, by virtue of the officer's or employee's position, any personal or property right to a local government record even though the officer or employee developed or compiled it.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989.

Sec. 201.006.  RECORDS TO BE DELIVERED TO SUCCESSOR IN OFFICE.  (a)  A custodian of local government records shall, at the expiration of the custodian's term of office, appointment, or employment, deliver to the custodian's successor, if there is one, all local government records in custody.  If there is no successor, the governing body shall determine which officer of the local government shall have custody.
(b)  If the functions of an office of one local government are assumed by another local government, the governing bodies of the two local governments shall determine in which local government custody of the records of the office shall be vested.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989.

Sec. 201.007.  RECORDS OF ABOLISHED LOCAL GOVERNMENTS.  (a)  If a local government is abolished or declared void pursuant to state law, the records of the local government shall be dealt with according to this section.
(b)  After the settlement of the outstanding indebtedness of an abolished municipality and the satisfaction of the other applicable requirements of Chapter 62, Local Government Code, the municipality's governing body at the time the municipality is abolished, or the receiver or trustees if appointed by a court, shall transfer the records of the municipality to the custody of the comptroller. A record of an abolished municipality may not be sold to satisfy an outstanding indebtedness.
(c)  After the settlement of the outstanding indebtedness of an abolished special-purpose district or authority, other than a school district, and the satisfaction of the other applicable requirements of state law establishing or permitting the establishment of the district or authority or governing its abolition, the district's governing body at the time the district is abolished shall transfer the records of the district to the custody of the comptroller.  A record of an abolished special-purpose district or authority may not be sold to satisfy an outstanding indebtedness.
(d)  As an exception to Subsections (b) and (c), if some or all of the functions of an abolished municipality or special-purpose district or authority, other than a school district, are assumed by another local government, the records of the abolished local government relating to the assumed functions shall be transferred to the appropriate offices of the local government assuming the functions.
(e)  The records of annexed, consolidated, or abolished school districts shall be transferred as provided by this subsection.  The records of an annexed school district shall be transferred to the custody of the governing body of the school district to which the abolished school district has been annexed.  The records of each of two or more school districts that have been consolidated shall be transferred to the custody of the governing body of the consolidated school district.  The records of an abolished school district whose entire territory is annexed to another school district shall be transferred to the custody of the governing body of that school district.  The commissioner of education shall determine to which governing body custody of the records of an abolished school district shall be transferred in those instances in which the territory of the abolished district is divided among two or more school districts.
(f)  The cost of the transfer of records to the comptroller under this section shall be paid for out of the funds of the abolished local government. If funds of the local government are not available for this purpose, the cost of the transfer shall be paid out of the funds of the comptroller.
(g)  The records retention schedules issued by the commission shall be used, as far as practicable, as the basis for the retention and disposition of local government records transferred to the custody of the comptroller under this section.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989;  Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 558, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.
Amended by: 
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 937 (H.B. 3560), Sec. 1.99, eff. September 1, 2007.

Sec. 201.008.  RECORDS OF ABOLISHED OFFICES OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS.  (a)  Records of an office of county superintendent of schools or county superintendent of education abolished under former Section 17.95, Education Code, before September 1, 1989, that are still in the possession of a custodian of county records or a county officer shall be transferred to the custody of the commission by order of the director and librarian.
(b)  The director and librarian shall determine the time and manner of the transfer of the records on a county-by-county basis.  The cost of the transfer shall be paid for out of funds of the commission.
(c)  The county judge of a county in which a custodian of county records has possession of the records of an abolished office of the county superintendent of schools may petition the director and librarian to allow the county to retain all or part of the records and the director and librarian may grant the petition.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989;  Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 6.70, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.

Sec. 201.009.  ACCESS TO RECORDS.  (a)  Local government records are subject to Chapter 552, Government Code.
(b)  Any local government record to which public access is denied under Chapter 552, Government Code, including a birth record maintained by a local registrar, is, if still in existence, open to public inspection 75 years after it was originally created or received.  However, a death record maintained by a local registrar is, if still in existence, open to public inspection 55 years after it was originally created or received.  This subsection does not limit the authority of a governing body or an elected county officer to establish retention periods for records under Section 203.042.
(c)  Subsection (b) does not apply to a local government record whose public disclosure is prohibited by an order of a court or by another state law.
Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989;  Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 5.95(90), eff. Sept. 1, 1995.
Amended by: 
Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 462 (S.B. 1907), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2011.