I think everyone agrees that the basement is one of the worst
locations to store records.   Too many bad things can happen.

But to Peter's original post - I am not aware of a law that forbids
the practice even though guidelines exist to discourage it.  And if a
law exists enforce would be extremely difficult especially at the
local government level which is where PK works.

Unlike large Texas counties (Harris, Bexar, Dallas, Tarrant, Travis,
El Paso) most  do not have the space not resources to store records in
an environmentally controlled environment.  In addition because of the
remoteness they have limited access to off-site storage vendors.  So
county officials have very few options except storing the records in a
basement or renting a space in the local self storage facility.

Texas allows county clerks to collect a records management fee (I
think it is still $5.00 per filing) but the courts have ruled these
funds are managed by the CC's office within certain limits.  Note that
District Clerks also collect a fee but it does not generate nearly as
much money.  I know that some of the County Clerks use the fees to
support records management activities for other county offices.  But I
suspect many do not.  (Paul Scott who is the record manager at Harris
County might be able to shed more light on this).

Another point - a number of courthouses (and city halls) in Texas are
30 plus years old and not structurally built to store volumes of
records above the first floor.  Unfortunately the basement becomes the
de facto storage facility.  In West Texas this isn't necessarily a
problem because the humidity is fairly low and the temperature in the
basement stays fairly constant.  Where this can be a real problem is
in East and South Texas where the humidity can get extremely high -
above 80% during the summer.  A varmints paradise.

I am betting that many local governments outside of Texas face the
same challenges...

Bruce White, CRM, PMP
Radnor, PA
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/bblanco

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your
balance you must keep moving." -- Albert Einstein

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