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Hot Springs board to consider destroying archived records; city proposes on-site shredding contract
Summary
City staff told the Hot Springs Board of Directors that thousands of boxes of municipal records — including some district court files — are scheduled for destruction and that the city plans to use the state's contract with Rock Dock LLC d/b/a Rock Solid Shredding to shred them on-site on two Fridays in July.
City of Hot Springs staff told the Board of Directors at an agenda meeting that the city will present a resolution to authorize destruction of a large group of municipal records and a companion resolution to award on-site shredding services to Rock Dock LLC d/b/a Rock Solid Shredding.
"This is a resolution authorizing the destruction of certain city records," the City Clerk said, reporting that multiple city departments submitted verified destruction requests and that some of the records include a request from district court and thus had prior approval from the quorum court.
The Clerk said the records are currently housed at ASMSA and will be shredded on-site; the city has tentative dates of Friday, July 11, and Friday, July 25, and Rock Dock is holding those dates. Under the state contract cited in the packet, the price described in the meeting was a $36 trip charge plus $0.16 per pound of shredded material.
Why it matters: public records retention and destruction are governed by statutory retention schedules and by local procedures; destroying records without required approvals can raise legal and transparency questions. City staff told directors that the records on the list include originals that must be kept, copies that can be destroyed, and items already digitized and stored in Laserfiche.
Board members asked for more file-level detail before voting. "So that sounds like the records won't be in our packet, and we won't know what is being shredded," Director Beard said. The City Clerk replied the packet will include the destruction request and a spreadsheet inventory that lists box numbers, contents descriptions, retention periods and the year each box is eligible for destruction.
Directors also discussed witnessing the shredding. The Clerk said the city will need a board member to volunteer to witness the shredding and sign the affidavit; several directors discussed splitting the two dates, and a director said they could be available on July 11.
Staff emphasized retention-period rules: some records carry three-, seven- or ten-year retention periods while others are permanent; some files are copies and some have been digitized. The Clerk said the city previously approved digitization and that copies marked for destruction often are duplicates of records retained elsewhere.
The two related resolutions — one authorizing destruction and one contracting Rock Dock LLC to shred on-site under a state contract — were presented for placement on the board's formal agenda for the board's next regular meeting on Tuesday, July 1. No formal board action was recorded at the agenda meeting.
The board packet for July 1, staff said, will include an inventory of boxes scheduled for destruction and the retention-period notation for each box; the city will retain the inventory list after shredding.
