An agenda item during a recent city council meeting got minds at the Press curious about municipal procedure, and we learned throwing out paperwork is a common practice in government.

The item in question was approval for the police and fire departments to destroy documents. In fact, it’s long been standard procedure, and each department has its own rules for what documents to copy or part with and when.

Police Chief Michelle Kott directed the Press to the Municipal Records Manual, available online as a state resource.

Fire Chief Warren Achey said, “It’s not necessarily done routinely; it all comes down to space and room. We save forms from personnel, EMS, labor training management – some from like 20 years ago. Things may change. Everything is going digital.”

In the meantime, Achey said, space is always at a premium, and boxes of old duplicates don’t always need to be retained for decades.

The manual clarifies what is expected of each department in a county or municipality, and is available at phmc.pa.gov/Archives/Records-Management/Documents/2019-Municipal-Records-Manual-rev-with-links.pdf.