House Bill 587

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 25-60-1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO EXTEND THE DATE OF REPEAL ON THE CREATION OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS COMMITTEE; TO AMEND SECTION 25-60-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO EXTEND THE DATE OF REPEAL ON THE AUTHORITY OF COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES TO ESTABLISH REGIONAL RECORDS CENTERS; TO AMEND SECTION 25-60-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO EXTEND THE DATE OF REPEAL ON THE AUTHORITY TO COLLECT A DOCUMENT FILING FEE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 25-60-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

25-60-1. There is hereby created the local Government Records Committee. The committee shall be composed of the following members: the Attorney General, or his designee; the Secretary of State, or his designee; the State Auditor of Public Accounts, or his designee; the Chairman of the State Tax Commission, or his designee; the Director of the State Department of Archives and History, or his designee; a representative from each of the following organizations, to be designated by the head of each organization for a term of two (2) years with a limit of not more than two (2) terms: the Family Research Association of Mississippi, Inc., the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, The Mississippi Bar, the Mississippi Chancery Clerks' Association, the Mississippi Circuit Clerks' Association, the Mississippi City Clerks' Association, the Mississippi Historical Society, the Mississippi Municipal Association, the Mississippi Sheriffs' Association, the Mississippi Superintendents of Education Association, the Mississippi Tax Assessors' Association and the Mississippi Tax Collectors' Association; and one (1) resident of this state appointed by the Governor for a term of two (2) years with a limit of not more than two (2) terms. The Director of the Department of Archives and History shall be chairman of the committee. Members of the committee shall receive per diem as provided in Section 25-3-69, and shall be reimbursed for necessary expenses and travel as provided in Section 25-3-41.

It is the duty of the committee to review, approve, disapprove, amend or modify records control schedules submitted by municipalities, municipal courts and participating counties for the disposition of records based on administrative, legal, fiscal or historical value. When the Mississippi Supreme Court designates the Department of Archives and History as the records management agency for courts, it is the duty of the committee to review, approve, disapprove, amend or modify records control schedules submitted by justice, county, circuit and chancery courts in participating counties. Such records control schedules, once approved, shall be authoritative and directive, and shall have the force and effect of law.

It is the duty of municipalities and participating counties to cooperate with the committee in complying with the provisions of this section. Each municipality and participating county shall establish and maintain an active and continuing program for the management of its records and shall submit to the committee recommended retention schedules for records in its custody.

Any county may, by resolution spread upon the minutes of the board of supervisors, exempt itself from the requirements imposed by this section.

The committee is authorized to promulgate any rules and regulations necessary to implement the authority granted to it in this section.

This section shall be repealed on July 1, 2008.

SECTION 2. Section 25-60-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

25-60-3. Counties and municipalities are hereby authorized to establish regional records centers for the storage, preservation and use of permanently valuable county and municipal records and of inactive county and municipal records which are required to be retained for a prescribed period of time but which are not needed to be kept in the creating office. Such regional records centers may be jointly established and maintained pursuant to agreements executed under the Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1974. Any center established under this section must either be certified by the Department of Archives and History as provided for historical or archival groups or public libraries * * *, or be administered by the Department of Archives and History pursuant to a contract between the department and the local government which established the center.

This section shall be repealed on July 1, 2008.

SECTION 3. Section 25-60-5, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

25-60-5. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, any county or municipal official or employee who accepts documents for filing as public records shall, in addition to any other fee provided elsewhere by law, collect a fee of One Dollar ($1.00) for each document so filed. In municipalities and participating counties that collect Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00) or more per month from the filing fee, the official or employee collecting the fee shall, on or before the last day of each month, deposit the avails of Fifty Cents (50¢) of the fee into the general fund of the county or municipality, as appropriate, and remit the remainder to the State Treasurer who shall deposit it to the credit of a statewide local government records management fund which is hereby created in the State Treasury. In municipalities and participating counties that collect less than Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00) per month from the filing fee, the avails of Fifty Cents (50¢) of the fee shall be remitted to the State Treasurer on a quarterly basis for deposit as provided in the previous sentence. Any monies remaining in such fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not lapse into the General Fund of the State Treasury. Counties and municipalities shall expend monies derived from the fee hereinabove imposed solely to support proper management of their official records in accordance with records management standards established by the Department of Archives and History. Monies in the Local Government Records Management Fund shall be expended by the Department of Archives and History, pursuant to legislative appropriation, to support the Local Government Records Office of the department and to support a local records management grant program as funds permit.

(2) The fee provided in subsection (1) of this section shall not be collected in any county until the board of supervisors, by resolution spread upon its minutes, determines that it will collect the fee.

(3) Each municipality and participating county may collect the filing fee provided for in this section on filings in any court subject to their respective jurisdiction.

(4) This section shall be repealed on July 1, 2008.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2006.