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Council questions archival standards as clerk proposes Laserfiche and electronic retention
Summary
Councilmembers probed how the city will decide which records to archive or destroy; the clerk said Georgia accepts electronic copies and proposed Laserfiche/cloud storage plus departmental logs documenting destroyed materials.
A councilmember asked the clerk to explain what standards would determine whether records are archived or destroyed and how the city would preserve legislative history. The clerk responded that the State of Georgia's retention schedule guides decisions and that the city could move files to an electronic system such as Laserfiche to reduce paper storage, noting, "Because as long as we've got it electronically, we don't need to keep it paper."
Councilmembers raised concerns about preserving legislative history and the need for clear evaluation criteria. The clerk said departments will complete a spreadsheet each time they destroy materials so there is a record of what was removed. Members supported a line-by-line review in a future work session to ensure the retention schedule and any accompanying ordinance language are clear and avoid unintended loss of historical records.
