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OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY <br />OPINION NO. 72-19 <br />AUGUS T 31, 197 2 <br /> <br />SUBJECT: Maintaining Codes that have been incorporated by <br />reference into the Santa Ana Municipal Code as <br />public records. <br />TO•: Florence Malone, Clerk of the Council <br />OPINION BY: James A. Withers, City Attorney <br />Robert C. Sangster, Deputy City Attorney <br />QUESTION: Is the City required to maintain permanently on <br />file copies of Codes that had been incorporated <br />by reference into the Santa Ana Municipal Code <br />after the sections of our Code incorporating such <br />Codes are repealed? <br />ANSWER: Yes. <br />ANALYSIS: <br />A city is required to maintain as public records in perpetuity <br />all ordinances, resolutions and minutes. A Code that has been adopted <br />by a reference into the Municipal Code is in fact an ordinance of the <br />City Council of equal dignity with ordinances that are printed in full <br />in our Code. <br />Government Code Section 34090.5 authorizes the destruction of <br />public records if certain conditions exist, namely that they have been <br />microfilmed or otherwise permanently reproduced. There was formerly <br />a seven year limitation, but a 1971 amendment removed it. Thereforz <br />a Code that has once been adopted by reference into the Municipal Code <br />must either be retained on the file by the City or must be microfilmed <br />in full. <br />I suggest that the solution to the problems that might be caused <br />by the inadvertant loss or destruction of such a Code is the attachment <br />of the Code directly to the ordinance that adopts it and the placement <br />of both that original ordinance and the Code adopted thereunder in the <br />permanent Clerk's file. <br />This is important not only because the law requires the City to <br />maintain as public records all ordinances adopted, but because it is <br />often important for us to find out what the law was on a given date, <br />and we can often do that only by finding the uniform code that was in <br />force on that particular date. If you think that this matter requires <br />further clarification by way of a resolution of the City Council, we <br />would be pleased to prepare it. <br />Respectfully submitted, <br />James /A/Wit ers, Cif Att rney <br />by /~~ <br />Robert C. Sangs r <br />