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Accessing State Government: Open Meetings | Notice of Actions | Data Practices | Records Retention

Records Retention

All government agencies are required to "make and preserve all records necessary to a full and accurate knowledge of their official activities." Minn. Stat. sec. 15.17.

These government records may be destroyed only with the approval of the records disposition panel. This panel consists of the attorney general, the director of the Minnesota Historical Society, and the legislative auditor in the case of state records, or the state auditor in the case of local government records.

The panel also has authority to determine the conditions under which records may be reproduced onto another medium (e.g., optical disk), and the originals destroyed. Minn. Stat. sec. 138.17.

October 2008