2005 Vermont Code - § 453. — Duties of commissioner of buildings and general services

§ 453. Duties of commissioner of buildings and general services

(a) In addition to the duties otherwise assigned to him or her by law the commissioner of buildings and general services may:

(1) Give aid, advice and information to all or any custodians of public records;

(2) Have access to all public records at all reasonable times;

(3) Receive gifts, aid or assistance, of any kind, from any source, public or private, for the purpose of housing, ordering, copying, preserving, editing or publishing, of public records;

(4) Recover public records not in the possession of their lawful custodians;

(5) Investigate all public offices in this state for the purpose of ascertaining the adequacy of protection of public records;

(6) Devise and advise as to the use of standard books or forms for the keeping of records, except such records as are otherwise regulated by law;

(7) Receive, with his consent, noncurrent records from any custodian who may desire to deliver the records;

(8) Copy, index, repair, edit or publish public records, or lists, inventories, guides, catalogues, or indices thereof, and charge per copy costs that are reasonably related to the costs of copying, indexing, repairing, editing or publishing public records, or lists, inventories, guides, catalogues or indices thereof. Fees collected under this subdivision shall be credited to a special fund established and managed pursuant to subchapter 5 of chapter 7 of Title 32, and shall be available to the department of buildings and general services to offset the costs of providing these services;

(9) Cooperate with any federal agency for any of these ends;

(10) Adopt rules as may be necessary for the effectual preservation of all public records in this state, subject to the approval of the governor, including but not limited to the microfilming or electronic capture of all public records;

(11) Maintain a records center to hold little used departmental records for later disposition;

(12) Administer a central microfilm and electronic capture program for public records, including land records in the possession of town or county officers. Public records which are preserved on microfilm or electronically captured shall be taken and received in all courts, public offices, and official bodies as prima facie evidence;

(13) Cooperate with the division of Vermont state archives within the secretary of state's office to comprehensively identify, appraise, schedule, preserve, and keep accessible archival records.

(b) The commissioner shall accept for filing copies of land records submitted in microfilm, electronic media or similar compressed form by town or county clerks. (Added 1959, No. 328 (Adj. Sess.), § 12; amended 1977, No. 32, § 1; 1987, No. 243 (Adj. Sess.), § 27, eff. June 13, 1988; 1995, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 4(a), eff. May 6, 1996; 1997, No. 59, § 7, eff. June 30, 1997; 1999, No. 5, § 2; 2003, No. 3, § 3.)