Records Management & FOIA Flashcards

A municipality destroys records before their retention period expires without authorization. What is the potential consequence?

Answer: Criminal or civil liability and inability to defend against litigation

Unauthorized destruction of public records can expose the municipality to criminal penalties, civil liability, and adverse inferences in litigation.

Which FOIA principle governs how fees may be charged to a requestor who is a member of the news media?

Answer: News media requestors may only be charged for duplication costs, not search or review costs

Federal FOIA and most state equivalents limit fees for news media requestors to duplication costs only, waiving search and review fees.

What is 'redaction' in the context of a public records response?

Answer: Removing or obscuring exempt information before releasing a document

Redaction involves blocking out or removing portions of a document that are legally exempt before the remainder is released to the requestor.

Under most state open records laws, how should a municipality handle a request for a record that has already been destroyed pursuant to an approved retention schedule?

Answer: Notify the requestor that the record no longer exists and document the response

If a record was lawfully destroyed per the approved schedule, the municipality should inform the requestor the record no longer exists and document this response.

A certified municipal officer discovers that a retiring department head has stored municipal records only on a personal hard drive at home. What is the correct immediate action?

Answer: Retrieve all municipal records before the employee leaves and transfer them to official custody

Public records are the property of the municipality regardless of where they are stored, and they must be returned to official custody when an employee departs.

Which of the following best describes a 'disposition authority' in records management?

Answer: Legal authorization specifying when and how records may be destroyed or transferred

A disposition authority is the official legal approval that authorizes a government entity to destroy, transfer, or otherwise dispose of specific record series.

What is the significance of the 'date of creation' vs. 'date of last action' in determining when a retention period begins?

Answer: Some record series trigger retention from creation, others from the date of last action or closure of a matter

Retention schedules specify which trigger event starts the clock — creation date for some series and closure or last action date for others, affecting when records may be legally destroyed.