LIMA, OH (WLIO) - They are charged with maintaining and disposing of governmental documents and most people have never heard of them.
Ohio law requires municipalities to have a records commission. It consists of a chief executive or their appointed representative, chief fiscal officer, chief legal officer, and a community representative appointed by the chief executive. The City of Lima's records commission meets twice a year to handle any requests for the disposal of department records and to provide the rules for both the retention and disposal of records.
"When you think about the records that the city or any government agency for that matter holds, there's a tremendous amount of information there, right? From e-mails and documents and grant applications, things of that. That we have to determine, are these public records? Do they need to be saved? If so, how long do they need to be saved? Because really, government is all about transparency. We need to make sure that those records and documents are available to the public when requested," explained Shane Coleman, Lima chief of staff and records commission chair.
Coleman says they submit a list of documents they want to dispose of to the Ohio History Connection for review. They look to see if there is anything that should be retained for historical value.
