CC RESOLUTION 5491RESOLUTION NO. 5491
A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A CITYWIDE EMAIL
RETENTION POLICY.
The City Council of the city of El Segundo does resolve as follows:
SECTION 1. The City Council finds and determines as follows:
A. Keeping and maintaining public records that are unnecessary or duplicative results
in the consumption of public resources including money, time, and space.
B. State law (Gov. Code, § 34090 et seq.) establishes protocols for the City's
retention and destruction of documents.
C. The creation of an email retention policy with a five-year retention period, subject
to certain stated exceptions, will help the City achieve its goals of complying with
state record retention laws, conducting business efficiently, enabling public access
to records, and cost-effectively storing documents.
D. It is in the public interest to reduce the City' s cost for storing documents while, at
the same time, ensuring that the City preserves those records that are required to
conduct City business.
SECTION 2, Approval. The City Council approves the email retention policy
attached hereto as Exhibit 'A" which is incorporated by reference.
SECTION 3. If any part of this Resolution or its application is deemed invalid by a
court of competent jurisdiction, the City Council intends that such invalidity will not affect
the effectiveness of the remaining provisions or applications and, to this end, the
provisions of this Resolution are severable.
SECTION 4. The Mayor, or presiding officer, is hereby authorized to affix his
signature to this Resolution signifying its adoption by the City Council of the City of El
Segundo, and the City Clerk, or her duly appointed deputy, is directed to attest thereto.
SECTION 5. This Resolution will take effect immediately upon adoption and will
remain effective unless repealed or superseded.
SECTION 5, The City Clerk will certify to the passage and adoption of this
Resolution, enter it in the City's book of original Resolutions, and make a record of this
action in the meeting's minutes.
RESOLUTION NO. 5491
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PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED this 4th day of June,
2024.
D eb, Zw-S e s,
ATTEST:
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Tracy +!"eav , City Clerk
Mark D. Hensly, City
RESOLUTION NO. 5491
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CERTIFICATION
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES SS
CITY OF EL SEGUNDO
I, Tracy Weaver, City Clerk of the City of El Segundo, California, do hereby certify that the
whole number of members of the City Council of said City is five; that the foregoing
Resolution No. 5491 was duly passed, approved, and adopted by said City Council at a
regular meeting held on the 4th day of June, 2024, approved and signed by the Mayor, and
attested to by the City Clerk, by the following vote:
AYES:
Mayor Boyles, Mayor Pro
Council Member Baldino
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
Council Member Giroux
ABSTAIN:
None
Tem Pimentel, Council Member Pirsztuk, and
WITNESS MY HAND THE OFFICIAL SEAL OF SAID CITY this 444, day of June, 2024.
6&�� wmv�
Tr y Weaver, City Clerk
of the City of El Segundo,
California
RESOLUTION NO. 5491
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EXHIBIT "A"
EMAIL RETENTION POLICY
This policy establishes guidelines and procedures for the City of El Segundo ("City') email
system. This email retention and management policy applies to all employees, advisory body
members, council members, contractors, interns, volunteers, and others when they are
using City -provided email.
2. Definitions
For the purpose of this policy, the following definitions shall apply:
a. "CPRA" shall mean California Public Records Act (Government Code Sections
7920.000-7931.000).
b. "Email", "e-mail", and "electronic communications" shall mean all correspondence
including any files or additional content attached as part of the electronic
correspondence that is sent from, received by, and/or stored on the City's email
system.
c. "Public Record" shall mean any writing containing information relating in a
substantive way to the conduct of the public's business prepared, owned, used,
or retained by [the City] regardless of physical form or characteristics.'
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a. The City's email system is intended to be used as a method of communication for the
sending and receiving of correspondence. Users are solely responsible for the
management of their mailboxes, just as they are responsible for sorting through paper
mail in their in -boxes from the US Post Office or inter -office memoranda. Email is not
a records management system.
b. To the extent that any correspondence including email may, in and of itself, contain
information relating to the conduct of the public's business, such correspondence is
1 See Gov. Code, § 7920.530. See also City of San Jose v. Superior Court (Smith) (2017) 2 Cal.5th 608,
618.
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subject to retention as a Public Record and must comply with the City's Records
Retention Schedule.
Because the email system is not designed for long term storage, e-mail communications
which are intended to be retained as an official record (those that relate in a
substantive way to the conduct of business, or those that ARE made or retained for
the purpose of preserving the informational content for future reference) should be
printed out and the hard copy filed in the appropriate subject / project file, or saved in
an electronic subject / project folder.
d. For the above reason, the City will retain all communications system -wide for five (5)
years by default, which is consistent with Government Code Section 34090.
4. Process for Retention and Mana ement of Emails
a. In order to comply with the email retention schedule of five (5) years, the City will
configure its email system to retain all messages for a five (5) year period,
calculated as 1,825 plus 1 days from the date the email is sent or received within
the City's email system.
Immediately after the five (5) year period, messages will automatically be
purged. The autopurge policy will apply to all messages within all email folders
in the user's email account - including but not limited to:
Inboxes (delete messages older than 5 years)
Sent Items (delete messages older than 5 years)
iii. Deleted Items (delete messages older 5 years)
b. Emails that do not relate in a substantive way to the conduct of business, or are
not required to be retained by law nor by the City's Records Retention Schedule,
and were not made or retained for the purpose of preserving the informational
content for future reference (preliminary drafts, notes, transitory
correspondence, interagency or intra-agency memoranda not retained in the
ordinary course of business,) may be deleted by the City employee email user
prior to the five (5) year retention period. However, any such deleted emails will
still be retained within the City's email archive system pursuant to the retention
schedule applied to the message.
Archiving and "auto -archiving" of emails by the individual City employee is
not allowed.
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c. Messages in mailboxes of staff who separate from the City will be retained
according to the five (5) years retention policy.
The City's technology systems will be set up to allow for a separated
employee's access to City email and/or other technology to be immediately
disabled upon notification of employee's separation. Human Resources
and Information Technology Services shall ensure timely notifications of all
employee separations.
ii. During separation, Human Resources will request that employees:
a. Forward any emails or text messages relating to City business stored
on personal devices or personal accounts to their City email account.
b. Close out and/or remove access to City email or other technology
systems from their personal devices.
iii. Information Technology Services shall ensure that the employee's (former)
department director, and their designated representative(s), has access to
the former employee's email account.
iv. The records stored in the email account (including any archives) of an
employee who separates or transfers shall be the responsibility of that
employee's (former) department director, and their designated
representative.
v. After the five (5) year retention policy, the City will purge the separate
employee's mailbox pursuant to this policy.
d. Exceptions to the five (5) year retention policy:
California Environmental Quality Act "CEQA" / National Environmental
Policy Act "'NIA'' emails only:2 email submitted to, or transferred from
the agency, and all internal agency communications, including staff notes
related to a non-exempt CEQA action are required to be retained until
Completion of CEQA Process. This does not include:
a. "every email and preliminary draft."
z. Pertinent to departments involved with CEQA review, e.g., Planning Department and Public
Works/Engineering.
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b. "email equivalent to sticky notes, calendaring faxes, and social hallway
conversations — that is, a -mails that do not provide insight into the project
or the agency's CEQA compliance with respect to the project — are not within
the scope of Public Resources Code section 21167.6, subdivision (e) and need
not be retained to comply with Public Resources Code section 21167.6."
ii. Litigation Holds Other Types of Hold. Emails subject to litigation (including a
reasonable expectation of litigation,) claims, complaints, audits, records requests
and/or investigations suspend normal retention periods (retention resumes after
settlement or completion of the triggering hold). The City Attorney will notify the
Director of Information Technology Services of any litigation holds, identifying the
subject matter and/or employee names subject to the hold.
e. Personal Email
Persons subject to this policy should not use personal email to conduct City
business. In the event personal email is used this way, the content must be
preserved, and the email must be forwarded to the person's City email account
where it will be properly saved in compliance with this policy.
ii. Emails regarding the conduct of City business on a personal email account are
subject to disclosure under the CPRA, and persons must locate and provide to
staff, any records on personal accounts relating to a pertinent CPRA request
(unless an exemption applies).
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