CMO Records Management & FOIA 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A municipality destroys records before their retention period expires without authorization. What is the potential consequence?
- A mandatory audit by the IRS
- Criminal or civil liability and inability to defend against litigation (Correct answer)
- Loss of federal transportation funding
- Automatic disqualification from state grants
Correct 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.
Question 2: Which FOIA principle governs how fees may be charged to a requestor who is a member of the news media?
- News media requestors are charged full commercial rates
- News media requestors may only be charged for duplication costs, not search or review costs (Correct answer)
- News media requestors must pay a flat fee regardless of volume
- News media requestors are exempt from all fees under any circumstances
Correct 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.
Question 3: What is 'redaction' in the context of a public records response?
- Converting paper records to digital format
- Removing or obscuring exempt information before releasing a document (Correct answer)
- Archiving records to a secure off-site location
- Authenticating the official seal on a public document
Correct 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.
Question 4: 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?
- Reconstruct the record from memory or secondary sources
- Notify the requestor that the record no longer exists and document the response (Correct answer)
- Treat the destruction as a FOIA violation and re-create the record
- Deny the request without explanation
Correct 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.
Question 5: 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?
- Allow the employee to keep the records since they created them
- Retrieve all municipal records before the employee leaves and transfer them to official custody (Correct answer)
- Report the issue to the federal government
- Delete the records to protect privacy
Correct 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.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes a 'disposition authority' in records management?
- An official order to publicize records online
- Legal authorization specifying when and how records may be destroyed or transferred (Correct answer)
- A court order compelling the release of sealed records
- A federal mandate for data encryption
Correct 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.
Question 7: What is the significance of the 'date of creation' vs. 'date of last action' in determining when a retention period begins?
- They are always identical and interchangeable
- Some record series trigger retention from creation, others from the date of last action or closure of a matter (Correct answer)
- Federal law mandates only date of creation is used
- Date of last action applies only to financial records
Correct 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.
CMO Records Management & FOIA 3
A municipality destroys records before their retention period expires without authorization.
What is the potential consequence?