Regime changes can lead to mass shredding of public records
The Utica (N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch
reports that massive amounts of public records were apparently shredded by an outgoing Utica mayor's administration before a new mayor came into office. At least that's what the current administration says. Typically, state agencies, cities, counties, and other jurisdictions subject to public records laws are required to follow established retention schedules that dictate how long records are to be held before being sent to storage or destroyed. Officials who fail to follow these policies should be fired or penalized with personal fines - either they are ignorant of the law (which is bad), or they know the law and are knowlingly violating it (which is also bad). More states need tougher penalties for this kind of records bungling.