City and County of Denver, State of Colorado
Retention Schedule for Records Common to All
City and County of Denver Agencies and Departments Introduction

The Colorado State Archivist provides that each schedule must state the retention period prescribed by federal or state law, rule of court, or regulation for a record for which a period is prescribed; and prescribe retention periods for all other records, which periods have the same effect as if prescribed by law after the records retention schedule is adopted as a rule of the Colorado State Archivist.

This General Schedule sets mandatory minimum retention periods for records series that are usually found in all local governments, regardless of type. If the retention period for a record is established in a federal or state law, rule of court, or regulation, a citation to the relevant provision is given; if no citation is given, the authority for the retention period is this schedule.

The retention period for a record applies to the record regardless of the medium in which it is maintained. Some records listed in this schedule are maintained electronically in many offices, but electronically stored data used to create in any manner a record or the functional equivalent of a record as described in this schedule must be retained, along with the hardware and software necessary to access the data, for the retention period assigned to the record, unless backup copies of the data generated from electronic storage are retained in paper or on microfilm for the retention period.

Unless otherwise stated, the retention period for a record is in calendar years from the date of its creation. The retention period, again unless otherwise noted, applies only to an official record as distinct from convenience or working copies created for informational purposes. Where several copies are maintained, each local government should decide which shall be the official record and in which of its divisions or departments it will be maintained. City and County of Denver in its records management program should establish policies and procedures to provide for the systematic disposal of copies.

If a record described in this schedule is maintained in a bound volume of a type in which pages are not designed to be removed, the retention period, unless otherwise stated, dates from the date of last entry.

If two or more records listed in this retention schedule are maintained together by a city and county agency and are not severable, the combined record must be retained for the length of time of the component with the longest retention period. A record whose minimum retention period on this schedule has not yet expired and is less than permanent may be disposed of if it has been so badly damaged by fire, water, or insect or rodent infestation as to render it unreadable, or if portions of the information in the record have been so thoroughly destroyed that remaining portions are unintelligible.

Requests for Approval to Destroy (AFRD) unscheduled records whose submission to the Records Manager and Staff archivist of the Colorado State Archivist is required by the City and County of Denver, need not be filed for records shown as exempt from the requirement.

Certain records listed in this schedule are assigned the retention period of AV (as long as administratively valuable). This retention period affords city and county agencies the maximum amount of discretion in determining a specific retention period for the record described. Although AV may be used as a retention period on a records control schedule of a city and county agency, it is in the best interests of any records management program that fixed retention periods be assigned for each records series. AV records tend to accumulate and go unmanaged.

Circumstances occasionally dictate that the retention period for a record listed in this schedule be longer if it is maintained in a particular type of local government or documents a particular type of activity. Consequently, if the retention period for a record on another commission schedule, issued for a particular type of local government or local government activity, is longer than that listed for the same record in this schedule, the longer retention period must be followed…

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CR_Records_Retention_Schedule.pdf