N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.25 – Records retention and disposition
§ 57.25. Records retention and disposition. 1. It shall be the responsibility of every local officer to maintain records to adequately document the transaction of public business and the services and programs for which such officer is responsible; to retain and have custody of such records for so long as the records are needed for the conduct of the business of the office; to adequately protect such records; to cooperate with the local government's records management officer on programs for the orderly and efficient management of records including identification and management of inactive records and identification and preservation of records of enduring value; to dispose of records in accordance with legal requirements; and to pass on to his successor records needed for the continuing conduct of business of the office. In towns, records no longer needed for the conduct of the business of the office shall be transferred to the custody of the town clerk for their safekeeping and ultimate disposal.
Terms Used In N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.25
- Disposition: means the disposal of a record by destruction, sale, gift, transfer to the local government archives, or by other authorized means. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
- Governing body: means the town board, village board of trustees, city council, county legislature or board of supervisors, board of education or board of trustees of a school district or board of cooperative educational services, board of fire commissioners or other body authorized by law to govern the affairs of a local government. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
- Local government: means any county, city, town, village, school district, board of cooperative educational services, district corporation, public benefit corporation, public corporation, or other government created under state law that is not a state department, division, board, bureau, commission or other agency, heretofore or hereafter established by law. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
- Local officer: shall mean and include a local officer as defined in § 2 of the public officers law and any officer of a public benefit corporation. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
- Record: means any book, paper, map, photograph, or other information-recording device, regardless of physical form or characteristic, that is made, produced, executed, or received by any local government or officer thereof pursuant to law or in connection with the transaction of public business. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
- Records retention and disposition schedule: means a list or other instrument describing records and their retention periods which is issued by the commissioner of education. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
- Retention period: means the minimum length of time that must elapse before a record is eligible for disposition. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
2. No local officer shall destroy, sell or otherwise dispose of any public record without the consent of the commissioner of education. The commissioner of education shall, after consultation with other state agencies and with local government officers, determine the minimum length of time that records need to be retained. Such commissioner is authorized to develop, adopt by regulation, issue and distribute to local governments records retention and disposition schedules establishing minimum legal retention periods. The issuance of such schedules shall constitute formal consent by the commissioner of education to the disposition of records that have been maintained in excess of the retention periods set forth in the schedules. Such schedules shall be reviewed and adopted by formal resolution of the governing body of a local government prior to the disposition of any records. If any law specifically provides a retention period longer than that established by the records retention and disposition schedule established herein the retention period established by such law shall govern.