Records Retention

Considerations for Employee Separations

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With election season upon us, many offices will see elected officials and other employees separate or retire in the next few months. During this transition, offices must coordinate the transfer of records and working documents under ORC 149.351. This includes paper and electronic records, including email. An orderly transfer will prevent operational disruptions and help offices comply with Ohio’s Public Records Law.

Each office should designate locations for electronic records, such as a shared network, document management system, or government cloud. Designating these areas provides ease of access to records of the office as well as records retention compliance. However, employees may also keep electronic office records in unstructured personal systems. Departing employees should review the following areas to ensure records are transitioned appropriately:

  1. Email Accounts – Review government-owned email accounts. Delete transitory messages, non-records, and messages that have met their retention requirements. Move emails that require long-term retention to a record-keeping system so others can access them. For more information and email best practices, see the OhioERC Email Management online training module.
  2. Personal Drives – Offices may assign employees personal drives, such as OneDrive in Microsoft 365, to store work related files. Often, only the assigned employee can access the drive. Offices should require employees to move office records to a shared record-keeping system. They should also consider limiting storage capacity to discourage record hoarding and state that personal drives serve convenience purposes only.
  3. Local Drives/Desktops – Saving records to a computer’s local drive or desktop prevents others in the office from accessing them. It also creates security and disaster-recovery risks if the device is lost or fails. Employees should move office records from local drives to the office’s record-keeping system.
  4. Portable Media – Departing employees should return office-issued CDs, flash drives, portable hard drives, and other media. These devices may contain thousands of government records. Offices should inventory issued storage media to track who has it and how they use it.
  5. Personal Computers/Accounts – Before leaving, employees who use personal computers or accounts, such as personal email, should transfer all government records from them. Records remain subject to public records requests and litigation requirements whether employees store them on government or personal devices. This may also interfere with the office’s compliance to ORC 149.351.

Additionally, work with your IT team to identify automated policies that affect record retention. For example, determine whether the system deletes an employee’s OneDrive account a set number of days after separation. Automatic deletion could destroy records that the office must retain. This risk becomes especially serious when litigation holds apply concerning anticipated or active litigation. Deleting an account under a hold could expose the office to spoliation claims. To reduce this risk, consult with your legal department to determine if any holds apply.

As always, reach out to [email protected] if you have questions.

Avoid “Self-Destructing” Messaging Apps

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Last week was Sunshine Week (March 15–21), when the Ohio Attorney General’s Office releases its updated Sunshine Laws Manual to help Ohioans and public employees understand their rights and duties under the Public Records and Open Meetings laws.

The 2026 edition includes a new directive from Attorney General Dave Yost advising public employees not to use apps that automatically delete messages—such as Signal, WhatsApp, or Snapchat—because records are retained based on the content of the record, not the platform it was created or sent on. Auto-deleting messages may violate the Public Records Act since they prevent proper retention and review.

Yost highlights the recent case Ohio v. Wade Steen, et al., in which two State Teachers Retirement System board members used secret, off-record communications about a $65 billion investment. A judge ruled they violated their fiduciary duties and barred them from future board service. Yost writes that such secrecy erodes public trust and harms public institutions.

The Attorney General’s Office also provides free Sunshine Laws training, as does the Auditor of State. In Ohio, public officials (or designees) must complete this training once per elected term, and sessions are open to the public.

A World Without Microfilm: How Local Governments are Leading the Charge in Digital Preservation – Part II

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Following last month’s blog post, this month’s post will discuss the current work that is being done by the Digital Initiatives & Standards Committee (DISC) and what the next steps are for creating a digital preservation guide for the State of Ohio.

DISC has partnered with state records organizations, including the Ohio Electronic Records Committee, the Ohio History Connection, and the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board. In conjunction with these partnerships, DISC has established three subcommittees to determine standards and best practices for electronic records. The Microfilm committee has been tasked to determine the cost-effectiveness and long-term reliability of microfilm. Initial findings include: a significant price increase in microfilm supplies, a lack of product options, the impracticality of microfilm accessibility, and the obsolescence of microfilm equipment and repair.

If local governments decide to forego microfilm as a document preservation option and go the route of digital preservation, the Microfilm Subcommittee recommends the following to be considered:

  • Update retention schedules to reflect retaining electronic media and removing microfilm;
  • Plan to digitize microfilm (priorities, cost, staff, and time);
  • Research and invest in a digital preservation system.

The Minimum Standards Subcommittee has been meeting and working on coming up with digital standards, which include the following objectives:

  • Preferred digital file types (including DPI (dots per inch) and compression standards);
  • Standard and uniform naming conventions of records;
  • Implementing quality control standards when scanning records;
  • Applying sufficient metadata for searchability purposes.

The Security Subcommittee has discussed best practices for the security of electronic records. The following recommendations have been proposed:

  • Access/Restriction to certain records;
  • Understanding the difference between an access copy and a preservation copy, and what electronic document format they should be in;
  • Establishing the security controls for staff and internal/external users
  • Understanding explicitly the contract when dealing with a third-party system;
  • Having a disaster recovery plan in place.

Each of the three subcommittees will be compiling a report to address/review with the entire Digital Initiatives and Standards Committee this year. DISC hopes to have an Archives & Records Administration Permanent Electronic Records Guideline released in 2027.