Preston Grant of MOBN!'s TAB Committee attended the City Council's Finance and Management Committee today, as the Committee took yet another look at an update to the city's Records Management System ordinance.  The League of Women Voters has a recent post on RMS and why it's important at A Better Oakland, here.  And Preston's report follows:

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      Records Management System, or RMS,  is a searchable repository and storage facility for city documents that are no longer active but which cumulatively are the paper & digital trail of everything, yes everything, a city does.  Though a Citywide Records Management Ordinance (Ordinance 11370) was adopted in 1991, due to an oversight it was never codified and indexed into the Municipal Code.  Now, 18 years later the city needs to update the outdated existing ordinance and integrate it into the Sunshine Ordinance.  Only then will the work of getting this important piece of city legislation funded begin.  Everybody who talks about RMS begins by apologizing for the fact that it’s not sexy.  I suppose that on the surface it does look a bit drab but I can assure you that under its unprepossessing exterior lie scintillating issues bound to arouse.  Recently City Attorney John Russo and City Auditor Courtney Ruby, writing in the Tribune, cited several examples of poor RMS practices and their consequences.  In one case the city’s Finance Management Agency discovered that some $4 million in outstanding debts were irresolvable, and $3 million owed the city by such entities as PG&E, the U.S. Navy, and the Department of Corrections could not be collected all due to poor record keeping practices.  In a recent lawsuit the city paid out $25,000 after Public Works belatedly found documents indicating city liability.  Had the documents been found earlier the city’s liability would have been much less.  RMS will preserve audit trails which will in turn allow for greater accountability and efficiency in city government; and a good RMS will contribute to transparency in city government.

       RMS came back before the Finance and Management Committee this afternoon.  There seems to be majority support for the inclusion of enhanced language to the Sunshine Ordinance and a couple of council members acknowledged that the time is long past when this should have been accomplished and a RMS implemented.  Council members Quan, De La Fuente, and Brunner, however, had questions about the implication of some of the wording of the ordinance and Ethics Commissioner Parnell was unable to alleviate their concerns.  So, any decision to recommend to the Council by the committee was deferred until the first committee meeting in the New Year at which time the language in question should be worked out.

       So why am I going to the trouble of telling you this?  Because you should care enough to contact the members of the Finance and Management Committee as well as your council representative to let them know that you that you care, that you are watching, that you’re making a list, checking it twice …

The Finance and Management Committee council members are:

Jean Quan, committee chair (jquan@oaklandnet.com, 238-7004)

Ignacio De La Fuente (idelafuente@oaklandnet.com, 238-7005)

Pat Kernighan (pkernighan@oaklandnet.com, 238-7002)
Nancy Nadel (nnadel@oaklandnet.com, 238-7003)


Posted by Preston Grant, Make Oakland Better Now! TAB Committee