Records and Information Management – Data Governance

RECORDS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT – DATA GOVERNANCE

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT Council receive the Director of Corporate Administration’s March 1, 2016 report entitled “Records and Information Management – Data Governance”.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To describe the current status of the Town’s Records and Information Management Program and identify the need for data governance especially for the Town’s abundant electronic records.

BACKGROUND:

In 2013 the Town undertook to write its first Records Management Bylaw (Bylaw No. 879) and accompanying policy (#0100-039). Adoption of this fledgling records management program was an important first step to formalize and strengthen existing procedures around the Town’s records. The program sought to ensure staff awareness of their responsibility towards records; establish corporate standards; introduce procedures; and institute support and auditing practices – all with a view to mitigating risks related to the previous ad hoc management of records.

Together the Bylaw and policy formalized a program of guidelines and standards to support effective records management principles however, the technology purchased several years prior to adoption of the Bylaw and policy focused only on paper records. At the time of acquisition, the intent was to begin with managing the Town’s paper records though the longer-term vision has always been to expand to enable the alignment of the Town’s electronic records with the system in place for paper records.

DISCUSSION:

The Town’s business processes have changed over time with the introduction of new technology. When the Town first incorporated in the late 1980s, records were primarily paper-based. Now, electronic records have supplanted paper as the main method of transacting business at Town Hall though, in contravention with evidentiary requirements for court procedures, there is no organization-wide system in place to manage these many records (over 635.2GB in more than 30,537 folders (or 339,345 documents) not including emails).

This hybrid environment (of both paper and electronic documents) has created gaps for the municipality as discussed in the Town’s IT Strategic Plan. Specifically, the IT Strategic Plan describes records management as a high to extreme risk for View Royal due to its significant reliance on paper-based systems – which can be lost in a fire or a water ingress incident – and the lack of standardization. Also, the risk for litigation is heightened where the margin for error is considerable in relation to property-based interactions or general FOI requests as materials are stored in a variety of undocumented locations. Litigation is also an issue where there is unnecessary “digital debris” that is not addressed through a document retention schedule (brought to light recently through the J. Ghomeshi trial where thirteen year old emails were brought into evidence).

The IT Strategic Plan describes the Town’s data governance “at the base or initial level of maturation” given that information is department centric with low data accuracy. What the IT Strategic Plan advocates for is data governance that is efficient and integrated through the “formal orchestration of people, processes and technology to enable an organization to leverage its data across the enterprise”. With the approach of “people, processes and technology”, the IT Strategic Plan advocates that:

a.) staff first buy-in to the notion of good data governance – that is appropriate to the size of the Town’s operations;

b.) that standardized, accepted and supported processes for data management across the organization then be implemented (where naming, storing and data lifecycle management schedules are followed); and

c.) that the process can begin to select an appropriate tool for electronic records management (acquire technology), if required, once a.) and b.) are achieved.

Given the importance of data governance in combination with the extreme risk rating given to records management, the 2016 Budget includes a request for an additional 0.3 FTE for the current 0.5 FTE Archivist/Corporate Records Assistant position. The additional time would be earmarked solely for corporate records work and, in particular, items a.) and b.) described above. As the Archivist/Corporate Records Assistant is already described in the IT Strategic Plan as a “Subject Matter Expert”, her training and leadership would enable the Town to establish processes and actively support staff in how electronic information is captured/created; named; stored; and retained according to the records classification system already in place for paper records.

With respect to other municipalities of a similar size, there are several municipalities in the region and on the Island/Coast with full time records personnel:

The Town’s Strategic Plan includes service excellence as a priority and the implementation of data governance for electronic records is very much in keeping with this initiative.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT Council receive the Director of Corporate Administration’s March 1, 2016 report entitled “Records and Information Management – Data Governance”.

SUBMITTED BY: S. Jones, Corporate Officer

REVIEWED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer