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El Mirage council approves scheduled destruction of municipal records under state retention law
Summary
The council approved the destruction of municipal documents that have reached the end of their retention period, as authorized under Arizona Revised Statutes section 41-151-19, following staff explanation of record categories and retention schedules.
The El Mirage Common Council on Jan. 20 approved the destruction of municipal documents that the city’s retention schedule and the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records have determined are no longer of legal, administrative or historical value.
Councilmember Scottie Gentry asked for the item to be removed from consent for transparency after receiving resident questions about why the city destroys records. City records staff explained that retention and disposition are governed by state law and the state library’s disposition schedules. Staff said some records are retained for one year, some for five, and some for twenty years depending on the record category; those determined to lack continuing value are disposed of by the method specified by the state library.
After the explanation, Vice Mayor Monica Dorsey moved to approve the records destruction item and the council approved and recorded the action.
City staff said the item was presented as a courtesy to inform council and residents about routine records management performed in alignment with state schedules.
