Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
Parallel title
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Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1880-2005 (Creation)
- Creator
- Richmond (B.C.). City Clerk's Office
Physical description area
Physical description
24.45 m of textual records
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The City Clerk's Office is part of the Finance and Corporate Services Division and serves as a secretariat for Council and its Committees. It performs administrative functions including: agenda preparation recording of minutes, processing and certifying by-laws, record management and distribution of records, and making records available to the public.
The Clerk's Office is responsible for the preservation of all Council and Committee records, through a records management and archives system which documents the history of Richmond.
The City Clerk is also responsible for organizing and conducting City elections.
The City Clerk's Office is often the first stop for processing citizens' petitions, complaints and requests to Council, and also receives requests for information under the Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy legislation.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Series consists of the official minutes of Richmond City Council meetings relating to all aspects of local municipal/city government. Series is arranged in five sub-series, corresponding to the nature and scope of Council proceedings and the manner in which meeting minutes were variously filed: 1) Open Council meeting minutes; 2) In-camera/closed Council meeting minutes); 3) Open Committee of the Whole meeting minutes; 4) In-camera Committee of the Whole meeting minutes; and, 5) Council meetings for Public Hearing minutes.
Notes area
Physical condition
Council minutes were originally written in, or placed in bound volumes until 1998. After 1998 individual meeting minutes were filed in folders and arranged in date order. All closed meeting minutes and open meeting minutes from 1929 through 1998 have been unbound and filed in folders. Committee of the Whole minutes for in-camera meetings were originally bound until the last three meetings of 1985, after which they were filed individually in folders and arranged in date order (until 1998, when in-camera Committee of the Whole meetings were discontinued). Minutes of open meetings of Committee of the Whole not attached to or incorporated in regular Council minutes were filed individually in folders and arranged in date order. Minutes of public hearings not attached to or incorporated in regular Council minutes were filed individually in folders and arranged in date order
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Sub-series are arranged according to original filing practices over time. Minutes of open meetings of Committee of the Whole and of Public Hearings were at times attached to or incorporated in general Council minutes and minutes of closed meetings of Council were sometimes incorporated and indexed with closed minutes of the Committee of the Whole. An appendix (in hard copy) to this series-level description consists of chronological listings of minutes of each type of Council meeting across all sub-series
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Copies of most of the minutes are available in microform (microfilm or microfiche)
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Sub-series level descriptions and volume/file lists are available
Subject indexes are available for many of the minutes. See individual sub-series descriptions for detailed information about indexes available
Associated materials
Accruals
Further accruals are scheduled
General note
The provincial Community Charter (and previously the Municipal Act) has established Council as the governing body of the municipality and has defined its powers. Those powers are exercised through the adoption of bylaws and resolutions at Council meetings, which are recorded in official minutes. The Community Charter (and previously the Municipal Act) also provides for Council to establish procedure bylaws to regulate council meetings and their conduct. Council convenes on a scheduled basis as a regular meeting and at other times as a special meeting. These meetings may or may not be open to the public, depending on the confidentiality of matters to be discussed. Council also holds special meetings for the purpose of holding public hearings relating to specific land use issues as defined in procedure bylaws. Council has also carried out its affairs sitting as Committee of the Whole, with different purposes for the Committee being established by Council procedures over time. Council is composed of elected officials of the municipality. The first Council in 1880 consisted of a Warden and Councillors. It was composed of a Reeve and Councillors from 1881 to 1968 and a Mayor and Aldermen from 1968 to 1992. Since 1992, it has been composed of a Mayor and Councillors.
Alpha-numeric designations
BCAUL control number: CRICH-SER-1