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Ord 2688 2/15/1972 ORDINANCE NO. 2688 AN ORDINANCE CREATING A DATA ACCESS CONTROL PLAN. WHEREAS, the City of Wichita Falls is building a municipal information system, which includes the computerization of urban re- cords, which will greatly simplify access to such records; and, WHEREAS, it is the intention of the City Council that the data which will be entered into such municipal information system will be only the operationally oriented data of the City of Wichita Falls and various other local government organizations, and no data will be put into the system which is not used operationally or analytically by the City and other local governments; and, WHEREAS, it is the desire of the City Council to protect the privacy of individuals by limiting access to such computerized records, while at the same time complying with Section 131 of the Charter of the City of Wichita Falls which provides that all accounts and records of every office and department of the City shall be open to the public at all reasonable times, except the records and docu- ments from which might be secured information which might defeat the lawful purpose of the officer or department withholding them from access of the public. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, THAT: SECTION 1. The following data access control plan is hereby adopted by the City of Wichita Falls, and shall be complied with by the officers and employees of the City of Wichita Falls. This ordinance applies only to records controlled and maintained on the computer system, and applies to all requests for information, by City officers and employees as well as the general public. SECTION 2 . The City Manager shall appoint an employee of substantial responsibility, who reports directly to the City Manager, to the position of Data Registrar. Requests for the release of infor- mation, except for normal routine requests by City operational depart- ments for information necessary to carry out their functions, and except for routine requests for information which has been traditionally available to the general public, will be directed to the Data Registrar, who shall either approve or disapprove such requests in accordance with the guidelines established in this ordinance. All such requests will be in writing on a form provided by the Data Registrar, which form will state the date, name and address of the party requesting the in- formation, the ultimate use to be made of the information, and any other pertinent facts. In the eventthe Data Registrar is unavailable, an acting Data Registrar shall be appointed by the City Manager to serve in his place. Each request for information shall be delivered to the Data Registrar during normal business hours, and shall be either approved or disapproved by him within 24 hours, unless the end of the 24 hours falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, in which event such approval or disapproval shall be given at such hour on the next day which is not such Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. If such request is approved, the requested information will be delivered as soon as it can be prepared without interfering with the normal operations of the affected departments of the City. If such request is disapproved by the Data Registrar, he shall notify the person requesting the information of such action, together with his reason for such disapproval. Whenever such information is delivered to the person requesting it, such person shall pay to the City a fee for such information. A schedule of fees shall be established by the City Manager, which schedule will be available to the public. The pur- pose of the fee shall be to reimburse the City for the cost of the effort required to produce information not normally available through routine operations. The Data Registrar shall maintain a record of each request for the release of information, which record will contain the name of the party requesting the information, the date of the request, the purpose for which the information is requested, the final disposition of the request, and any other information deemed necessary. SECTION 3. There is hereby created a Data Access Advisory Board, hereafter referred to as the Board. It shall be composed of five (5) members, who shall serve without pay. The members shall be appointed by the Mayor, and the appointments must be approved by the Board of Aldermen. The terms of such members shall be for two (2) years, beginning on the first day of January; however, the initial terms shall be staggered so that two members ' terms shall expire December 31, 1972 and three members ' terms shall expire December 31, 1973. Each member shall serve until his suc- cessor has been appointed and approved. The Mayor, with the approval of the Board of Aldermen, shall appoint one of the members as Chair- man. SECTION 3.1. The Board shall have the following duties : A. To advise the Data Registrar and the Board of Aldermen regarding controls and policies affecting the release of information. B. To assist the Data Registrar and the Board of Aldermen in establishing criteria to determine the "need to know" test. C. To assist the Data Registrar in establishing ethics regarding requests for specific types of information. D. To consider any expansion of the data base which will result in acquisition and storage of data not previously main- tained by the City, and to advise the Board of Aldermen with reference thereto. SECTION 4. Any person on whom data is accumulated and filed shall have the right to review such data for accuracy upon making such a request to the Data Registrar, and paying the prescribed fee, if applicable. This shall guarantee to such person the right to correct any inaccurate data. If the accuracy of any data is ques- tioned, the City will confirm the accuracy of the source document, as well as the conversion to computerized records. Any questioned data shall be frozen with respect to dissemination for a reasonable time until the accuracy or inaccuracy of that data is established. Upon receipt of proof that any such data is inaccurate, it shall be corrected. -2- SECTION 5. When the purpose of any request for infor- mation is to obtain evidence to be used in the trial of a lawsuit, such request shall be directed by the Data Registrar to the City Attorney who shall advise the Registrar as to whether or not such request should be approved. In the event such request is dis- approved, it shall be necessary for the person requesting such information to obtain same through the use of a subpoena. SECTION 6. Any requested information which is not identifiable to any individual, is not restricted by Sections 8 through 8.5, and which will not defeat the lawful purpose of the City officer or department responsible for the information, may be released. SECTION 7. Information which is identifiable to any particular person will not be released to anyone, other than that person or any other person who has a legitimate need to know such information. The criteria of the "need to know" test shall be administered by the Data Registrar. SECTION 8. The data which is collected by the Depart- ment of Vital Statistics, Department of Personnel, Police Department, Fire Prevention Bureau and Public Health Department shall not be released except as specified in Sections 8. 1 through 8.5. SECTION 8. 1. Department of Vital Statistics: No infor- mation concerning illegitimacy or adoption certificates shall be released except upon the order of a court of competent jurisdiction. Information concerning birth and death certificates and name changes shall be released only to properly qualified applicants, who shall include only law enforcement personnel, insurance agencies (death certificates only) , attorneys at law (when representing a client who is the subject of the data) , and close relatives of the person whose records are being requested. SECTION 8.2. Personnel Department: Generally, the files of this department are regarded as confidential. Information from such files shall be released only to law enforcement agencies and agencies responsible for national security and others who, in the opinion of the Data Registrar, have a legitimate need to know such information. In addition, information from the file of an employee shall be released to his department head or prospective department head or any other officer or employee of the City, who, in the opinion of the Data Registrar, has a legitimate need to know such information. SECTION 8.3. Police Department: The sensitive data maintained by the Police Department has been grouped into eight categories; three of these are fully confidential, and five are semi-confidential. The data which is fully confidential shall be released to no one (including the person who is the subject of the data) outside the chain of prosecution and law enforcement agencies . The data which is semi-confidential shall be released to no one other than the person who is the subject of the data, law enforcement agencies, the prosecuting attorneys and the defense attorneys. The three categories of data which are fully confidential are the officers ' -3- .A . reports, the juvenile reports and the supplementary officers ' reports; the five categories of data which are semi-confidential are the criminal arrest records, the complaint reports, the traffic accident reports, complaints concerning police officers, and information concerning bomb reports. SECTION 8.4. Fire Prevention Bureau: Data concerning arson investigation reports shall not be released to anyone other than personnel engaged in arson investigation and prosecution and to law enforcement agencies . SECTION 8. 5. Public Health Department: Information concerning the medical records of individuals shall not be released to anyone other than the individual, except on the written approval of the Director of the Department. SECTION 8.6. Whenever any information described in Sections 8. 1 through 8.5 has been released, the Director under whose responsibility the data is gathered and maintained shall be notified of such release, and to whom the information is released. SECTION 9. Information which will defeat the lawful purpose of the City officer or department responsible for such information shall not be released. SECTION 10. Any person who is dissatisfied with the administration of the policies covered by this ordinance may appeal such actions to the Board of Aldermen at a regularly scheduled meet- ing. SECTION 11. Any employee of the City of Wichita Falls who violates any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be sub- ject to administrative disciplinary action, up to and including termination. SECTION 12 . Notwithstanding the provisions of any other sec- tion herein restricting the release of information, the Data Registrar and other employees of the City having custody or control of data covered by this ordinance shall produce and release any information if and as directed by the lawful order of a court of competent juris- diction. SECTION 13. The provisions of this ordinance shall be included and incorporated in the Code of Ordinances of the City of Wichita Falls as an addition thereto, and shall be appropriately renumbered to conform to the uniform numbering system of the code. PASSED AND APPROVED THIS the / 2 day of cry ee 1972 . �7 •v / M A Y O R ATTEST: j1-11'1.17(--)1 City Clerk -4- 1