Sec. 201.003. DEFINITIONS. In this subtitle:

(1) "Commission" means the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

(2) "Custodian" means the appointed or elected public officer who by the state constitution, state law, ordinance, or administrative policy is in charge of an office that creates or receives local government records.

(3) "Designee" means an employee of the commission designated by the director and librarian as provided by Section 441.167, Government Code.

(4) "Director and librarian" means the executive and administrative officer of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

(5) "Essential record" means any local government record necessary to the resumption or continuation of government operations in an emergency or disaster, to the re-creation of the legal and financial status of the government, or to the protection and fulfillment of obligations to the people of the state.

(6) "Governing body" means the court, council, board, commission, or other body established or authorized by law to govern the operations of a local government. In those instances in which authority over an office or department of a local government is shared by two or more governing bodies or by a governing body and the state, the governing body, for the purposes of this subtitle only, is the governing body that provides most of the operational funding for the office or department.

(7) "Local government" means a county, including all district and precinct offices of a county, municipality, public school district, appraisal district, or any other special-purpose district or authority.

(8) "Local government 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 a local 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:

(A) extra identical copies of documents created only for convenience of reference or research by officers or employees of the local government;

(B) notes, journals, diaries, and similar documents created by an officer or employee of the local government for the officer's or employee's personal convenience;

(C) blank forms;

(D) stocks of publications;

(E) library and museum materials acquired solely for the purposes of reference or display;

(F) copies of documents in any media furnished to members of the public to which they are entitled under Chapter 552, Government Code, or other state law; or

(G) any records, correspondence, notes, memoranda, or documents, other than a final written agreement described by Section 2009.054(c), Government Code, associated with a matter conducted under an alternative dispute resolution procedure in which personnel of a state department or institution, local government, special district, or other political subdivision of the state participated as a party, facilitated as an impartial third party, or facilitated as the administrator of a dispute resolution system or organization.

(9) "Office" means any office, department, division, program, commission, bureau, board, committee, or similar entity of a local government.

(10) "Permanent record" or "record of permanent value" means any local government record for which the retention period on a records retention schedule issued by the commission is given as permanent.

(11) "Record" means a local government record.

(12) "Records control schedule" means a document prepared by or under the authority of a records management officer listing the records maintained by a local government or an elective county office, their retention periods, and other records disposition information that the records management program in each local government or elective county office may require.

(13) "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.

(14) "Records management officer" means the person identified under Section 203.001 or designated under Section 203.025 as the records management officer.

(15) "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 local government records.

(16) "Retention period" means the minimum time that must pass after the creation, recording, or receipt of a record, or the fulfillment of certain actions associated with a record, before it is eligible for destruction.

Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 5.95(90), eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 31, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1352, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.