CHAPTER 201. GENERAL PROVISIONS
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, 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, is, if still in existence,
open to public inspection 75 years after it was originally
created or received. However, a birth record maintained by a
local registrar is, if still in existence, open to public
inspection 100 years after it was originally created or received
and 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.