The Town Clerk shall be responsible for maintaining all public records of the Town. All records shall be maintained in accordance with Maryland and federal law.
Town employees may only destroy or otherwise dispose of public records and nonofficial materials if such destruction or disposition is consistent with state and federal laws, including but not limited to §§ 10-637 through 10-642 of the State Government Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland and COMAR. The Town Clerk shall be responsible for creating any necessary schedules and seeking approval from the Maryland State Archivist for the destruction and disposition of public records and nonofficial materials.
The Town Clerk shall be responsible for the supervision of reproduction processes for the electronic, photographic, microfiche, or other method of reproducing public records for permanent or alternate storage of public records. The reproduction of documents in which the original documents shall be destroyed or disposed of shall be consistent with the conditions imposed by the Maryland State Archivist.
A copy of all certificates of destruction that are created and sent to the Maryland State Archivist shall be kept in a permanent file of certificates. An additional copy of the certificates may be kept in subject matter files where the original records were kept, if appropriate.
Upon notice of potential or actual litigation in which documents or other materials in the possession of the Town could be subject to discovery, evidence, investigation, or otherwise necessary or useful to any party to said litigation, the Town Clerk shall take all necessary steps to preserve such documents or materials. For purposes of this section, the obligation of preservation extends beyond the definition of public documents to include all documents and materials in the possession of the Town, including but not limited to electronic communications. The release, disposal, or destruction of such documents or materials shall be made only in accordance with state and federal law. Subject to state or federal law, for matters in which the Town is not a party, notice under this section shall be deemed sufficient if a person gives the Town Clerk a written notice that identifies the specific documents, or specifies a category or class of documents, sufficient to identify the documents which must be preserved under this section.