This report is being submitted to the Governor and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth in accordance with provisions of Senate Joint Resolution No. 94 (1980). It is aimed at evaluating current records-keeping procedures in the cities and counties of the Commonwealth.

Considerations were given in the study to the delivery of services through the existing local records program established by act of the General Assembly in 1972 and the current level of records-keeping practices in the localities. In conducting the study, meetings were held with state agency personnel, many local officials in their operating offices, and with statewide associations of Municipal Clerks, Circuit Court Clerks, Treasurers, Commissioners of Revenue and a group of interested local officials called together by the Northern Virginia Regional Planning Commission.

To assist in the study, the services of a private consultant were utilized. Mr. Julian Mims of Data Management, is an expert in the area of local records management and his experience of over a decade in working with counties and cities in eight states, including the Commonwealth, uniquely qualified him for the task. He was charged with addressing and evaluating the following areas:

a. Interrelationship of state and local government agencies for information and management requirements

b. Current records systems and the management of information

c. Non-current records disposition programs and preservation of vital records

d. Interrelationship of record/information management to operational efficiency, preservation and disaster relief.

e. Evaluate current records management program in relation to potential needs of the Commonwealth and develop realistic guidelines to meet the needs in the areas as outlined above.

In an intensive effort, Mr. Mims travelled 1,245 miles across the Commonwealth in visiting twenty-one local officers, discussing records problems in each of those instances, and met with the three officials who have been designated by local governments as records administrators. In addition, he met with county executives, a circuit court judge, the Treasurer's Subcommittee, and members of the staff of the Archives and Records Division of the State Library. His report concentrated on conditions in nine localities and it is appended to this report.