Opinion 75-84
To: Commissioner, Department of Public Safety
July 30, 1975
Re: Under the Georgia Records Act and agency head has direct supervisory control
over his agency records management officer, and, subject to the approval of the
State Records Commission, direct control over his records management program.
The Georgia Records Act, Ga. Laws 1972,p 1267, as amended (Ga. Code Ann. Ch.
40-8C), is a scheme which has been devised by the Georgia General Assembly to
establish a statewide records management system. This Act as amended,
establishes the position of a state records management officer and requires
state agencies to designate an agency records management officer. You have
inquired concerning the relationship between these two positions and that of
the head of a particular agency. You have further inquired concerning the
effect this Act has on an agency head's control over the records in his agency.
It is my opinion that, with certain limitations, an agency head has complete
supervisory control over the records management program and officer of his
agency, and the role of the state records management officer is basically of an
advisory capacity.
In order to define the authoritative interrelationship between these three
positions, the roles of each must be fully understood. Under this statutorily
mandated records management system, the Department of Archives and History
develops and issues rules and regulations for the efficient and economical
management and disposition of state records. Ga. Code Ann. ' 40-804c (b). It is
the primary responsibility of the state records management officer to see that
the records management programs are established pursuant to these rules and
regulations. Ga.. Code Ann. ' 40-804c (a). The agency records management
officer is an essential component in this scheme, for it is his responsibility
to "establish and operate a records management program" (Ga. Code
Ann. '.40-805c (g)), in accordance with the rules and regulations of the
Archives and History Department, for the particular agency by which he is
employed.
It is, therefore, incumbent upon the state records management officer to see
that the various agency records management officers properly perform their
tasks of creating and maintaining a records management program for their
respective agencies. However, this supervisory task is limited to: distributing
the rules and regulations of the Department of Archives and History to the
agency records management officers, educating the agency, records management
officers of these rules, providing consultative services to the agency records
management officers, conducting surveys in order to recommend more efficient
records management techniques, and actually training the agency records
management personnel. Ga. Code Ann. ' 40-804 (c). Thus, under the Georgia
Records Act, the state records management officer has no direct control over an
agency records management officer, but his role is to provide the agency
officer with the information and training with which to properly
set up agency records management programs.
In order to understand the relationship between the agency head and the agency
records management officer, the method prescribed in the statute for
implementing and carrying out an agency records management program must, first
be explained. Under the statute state records must be disposed of according to
a "retention schedule." Ga. Code Ann. '' 40-802c (g), 40-807c (b). A
retention schedule shall have the force and effect of law only when it has been
approved by the State Records Committee. Ga. Code Ann. ' 40-803c. Such
retention schedules can be presented to the committee for approval only by the
agency head. Ga. Code Ann. ' 40-803c. In reality this is accomplished
by the agency records management officer drawing up such a retention schedule
and the agency head approving it. Such retention schedule must also be
consistent with the commensurate "disposition standard" for such
"record series," as drafted by the agency head and the agency records
management officer in accordance with the Department of Archives and History's
rules and regulations. Ga. Code Ann. ' 40-805c (e). Thus, the agency head has
control of the disposition of his agency records and thereby his departmental
records management program in that none of his agency records can be disposed
of or moved without his approval.
The agency head thus has complete and direct supervisory control over all
actions of the agency records management officer within the scope of the
employment relationship, including the agency records management officer's
responsibility to create and operate an agency records management program. The
agency head can in effect, dictate all "retention schedules" and
"disposition standards" proposed by his agency records management
officer to be approved the State Records Committee. The only restraint put upon
an agency head's authority over his agency records management program is the
requirement of approval by the State Records Committee.
In summary, the agency head has direct supervisory control over his agency
records management officer, and, subject to the approval of the State Records
Committee, direct control over his records management program.
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