Wis. Stat. § 16.61 — WI Code / Chapter 16 / Section 16.61
Records of state offices and other public records.
Status: in_force

(1) Public records board. The public records board shall preserve for permanent use important state records, prescribe policies and standards that provide an orderly method for the disposition of other state records and rationalize and make more cost-effective the management of records by state agencies.

(2) Definitions. As used in this section:

(a) “Board” means the public records board.

(af) “Form” has the meaning specified in s. 16.97 (5p) .

(am) “Microfilm reproduction” means any manner by which an image is reduced in size and reproduced on fine-grain, high resolution film.

(an) “Personally identifiable information” has the meaning specified in s. 19.62 (5) .

(b) “Public records” means all books, papers, maps, photographs, films, recordings, optical discs, electronically formatted documents, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any state agency or its officers or employees in connection with the transaction of public business, and documents of any insurer that is liquidated or in the process of liquidation under ch. 645 . “Public records” does not include:

1. Records and correspondence of any member of the legislature.

1m. Any state document received by a state document depository library.

2. Duplicate copies of materials the original copies of which are in the custody of the same state agency and which are maintained only for convenience or reference and for no other substantive purpose.

3. Materials in the possession of a library or museum made or acquired solely for reference or exhibition purposes.

4. Notices or invitations received by a state agency that were not solicited by the agency and that are not related to any official action taken, proposed or considered by the agency.

5. Drafts, notes, preliminary computations and like materials prepared for the originator’s personal use or prepared by the originator in the name of a person for whom the originator is working.

6. Routing slips and envelopes.

(bm) “Records and forms officer” means a person designated by a state agency to comply with all records and forms management laws and rules under s. 15.04 (1) (j) and to act as a liaison between that state agency and the board.

(c) “Records series” means public records that are arranged under a manual or automated filing system, or are kept together as a unit, because they relate to a particular subject, result from the same activity, or have a particular form.

(cm) “Retention schedule” means instructions as to the length of time, the location and the form in which records series are to be kept and the method of filing records series.

(d) “State agency” means any officer, commission, board, department or bureau of state government.

(3) Powers and duties of the board. The board:

(a) Shall safeguard the legal, financial and historical interests of the state in public records.

(b) Upon the request of any state agency, county, town, city, village, or school district, may order upon such terms as the board finds necessary to safeguard the legal, financial, and historical interests of the state in public records, the destruction, reproduction by microfilm or other process, optical disc or electronic storage or the temporary or permanent retention or other disposition of public records.

(c) May promulgate rules to carry out the purposes of this section.

(d) Shall establish a system for the protection and preservation of essential public records that are necessary to the continuity of governmental functions in the event of a disaster, as defined in s. 323.02 (6) , or the imminent threat of a disaster, and in establishing the system shall do all of the following:

1. Determine what records are essential for operation during a state of emergency and thereafter through consultation with all state departments and independent agencies and the administrator, establish the manner in which such records shall be preserved, and provide for their preservation.

2. Require every state department and independent agency to establish and maintain a preservation program for essential state public records.

3. Provide for security storage of essential state records.

4. Furnish state departments and independent agencies with copies of the final plan for preservation of essential public records.

5. Advise all political subdivisions of this state on preservation of essential public records.

(e) May establish the minimum period of time for retention before destruction of any county, city, town, village, metropolitan sewerage district or school district record.

(f) Shall cooperate with and advise records and forms officers.

(j) Shall establish a records management program for this state.

(L) Shall receive and investigate complaints about forms, except as provided in sub. (3n) .

(o) May delegate any of the duties under this subsection to other state agencies.

(r) Shall consider recommendations and advice offered by records and forms officers.

(s) Shall recommend to the department procedures for the transfer of public records and records of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority to optical disc format, including procedures to ensure the authenticity, accuracy, and reliability of any public records or records of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority so transferred and procedures to ensure that such records are protected from unauthorized destruction. The board shall also recommend to the department qualitative standards for optical discs and copies of documents generated from optical discs used to store public records and records of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority.

(t) Shall recommend to the department qualitative standards for optical discs and for copies of documents generated from optical discs used to store materials filed with local governmental units.

(tm) Shall recommend to the department qualitative standards for storage of records in electronic format and for copies of documents generated from electronically stored records filed with local governmental units.

(u)

1. Shall create a registry, in a format that may be accessed by computer terminal, describing the records series maintained by state agencies that contain personally identifiable information by using, to the maximum extent feasible, information submitted to the board in retention schedules under sub. (4) (b) . The board may require state agencies to provide additional information necessary to create the registry. The board may not require a state agency to modify any records series described in the registry.

2. The registry shall not include any of the following:

a. Any records series that contains the results of a matching program, as defined in s. 19.62 (3) , if the state agency using the records series destroys the records series within one year after the records series was created.

b. Mailing lists.

c. Telephone directories.

d. Records series pertaining exclusively to employees of a state agency.

e. Records series specified by the board that contain personally identifiable information incidental to the primary purpose for which the records series was created, such as the name of a salesperson or a vendor in a records series of purchase orders.

f. Records series relating to procurement or budgeting by a state agency.

3. The registry shall be designed to:

a. Ensure that state agencies are not maintaining any secret records series containing personally identifiable information.

b. Be comprehensible to an individual using the registry so that identification of records series maintained by state agencies that may contain personally identifiable information about the individual is facilitated.

c. Identify who may be contacted for further information on a records series.

(3L) Executive secretary. The department shall, with the consent of the board and based on qualifications approved by the board, appoint an official in the classified service to oversee the day-to-day execution of the board’s duties, to serve as the executive secretary of the board and to coordinate the statewide records management program.

(3n) Exempt forms. The board may not receive or investigate complaints about the forms specified in s. 16.971 (2m) .

(4) Approval for disposition of records.

(a) All public records made or received by or in the custody of a state agency shall be and remain the property of the state. Those public records may not be disposed of without the written approval of the board.

(b) State agencies shall submit records retention schedules for all public records series in their custody to the board for its approval within one year after each record series has been received or created unless a shorter period of retention is authorized by law, in which case a retention schedule shall be submitted within that period. The board may alter retention periods for any records series; but if retention for a certain period is specifically required by law, the board may not decrease the length of that period. The board may not authorize the destruction of any public records during the period specified in s. 19.35 (5) .

(c) A records retention schedule approved by the board on or after March 17, 1988, is effective for 10 years, unless otherwise specified by the board. At the end of the effective period, an agency shall resubmit a retention schedule for approval by the board. During the effective period, if approved by the board and the board has assigned a disposal authorization number to the public record or record series, a state agency may dispose of a public record or record series according to the disposition requirements of the schedule without further approval by the board.

(5) Transfer of public records to optical disc or electronic format.

(a) Subject to rules promulgated by the department under s. 16.611 , any state agency may transfer to or maintain in optical disc or electronic format any public record in its custody and retain the public record in that format only.

(b) Subject to rules promulgated by the department under s. 16.611 , state agencies shall maintain procedures to ensure the authenticity, accuracy, reliability, and accessibility of public records transferred to or maintained in optical disc or electronic format under par. (a) .