§ 2-111. Definitions.

For the purpose of this division, the following words and terms shall have the meanings respectively ascribed:

City 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 the city 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:

(1)

Extra identical copies of documents created only for convenience of reference or research by officers or employees of the city government;

(2)

Notes, journals, diaries, and similar documents created by an officer or employee of the city government for the officer's or employee's personal convenience;

(3)

Blank forms;

(4)

Stocks of publications;

(5)

Library and museum materials acquired solely for the purposes of reference or display; or

(6)

Copies of documents in any media furnished to members of the public to which they are entitled under Chapter 424, Acts of the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 6252-17a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), or other state law.

Custodian means the appointed or elected public officer who by the city Charter, state law, ordinance or administrative policy is in charge of an office that creates or receives city records.

Director and librarian means the executive and administrative officer of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Office means any office, department, division, program, commission, bureau, board, committee, or similar entity of the city government.

Records control schedule means a document prepared by or under the authority of the records management officer listing the records maintained by the city, their retention periods, and other records disposition information that the records management program may require.

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.

Records management officer means the person designated in section 2-114 pursuant to section 203.025 of the Texas Local Government Code as the records management officer for the City of Houston.

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 city records.

(Ord. No. 91-88, § 1, 1-16-91)