A real boondoggle
Outside group should investigate Easley's e-mail policy
By: Editorial Board
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Opinion
Gov. Mike Easley is becoming a master of denial.
Easley's continuing insistence that his office's e-mail policy doesn't violate public records laws is becoming more ridiculous by the day.
Though he formed a committee to review the policy, we think it's time for an outside, independent review - by the State Bureau of Investigation. Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby could make that happen.
The (Raleigh) News & Observer obtained notes from two state public information officers from a meeting with the governor's press secretary that both said almost exactly the same thing: "delete e-mails to/from gov. office every day."
Yet, remarkably, Easley called the meaning of those notes unclear. He said they could also mean to print out e-mail messages and keep them in a file before deleting them.
It's ironic and more than a little bit suspect that Easley would call the notes "cryptic" when it appears that the only party behaving surreptitiously in E-mailgate 2008 is the governor himself.
Easley has given the appearance of taking the issue seriously by assembling a review panel, but we have reason to question the legitimacy of that.
Franklin Freeman, the committee's Easley-appointed chairman, is a top aide to the governor and announced publicly that he did not know how to turn a computer on and he did not communicate by e-mail.
In Easley's defense, the committee does include members from outside state government. But with reason to question both his motives behind the review and his legal interpretations, we still want an SBI investigation.
N.C. G.S. 132 defines a public record as any of a whole list of media "made or received … in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of N.C. government." It goes on to further define an "agency" as any of a slew of government units.
Basically, it's very inclusive, and deleting public records without the consent of the Department of Cultural Resources happens to be a misdemeanor offense in the state.
Public records laws fill a valuable role to society on the federal and local level by ensuring that the government is responsive to its people. They are premised on the belief that public records belong to the people and that without them, there is no possibility for a free marketplace of ideas.
North Carolinians should not tolerate any more of Easley's not-so-clever diversions. It's about time he gives up the fight.
Easley's continuing insistence that his office's e-mail policy doesn't violate public records laws is becoming more ridiculous by the day.
Though he formed a committee to review the policy, we think it's time for an outside, independent review - by the State Bureau of Investigation. Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby could make that happen.
The (Raleigh) News & Observer obtained notes from two state public information officers from a meeting with the governor's press secretary that both said almost exactly the same thing: "delete e-mails to/from gov. office every day."
Yet, remarkably, Easley called the meaning of those notes unclear. He said they could also mean to print out e-mail messages and keep them in a file before deleting them.
It's ironic and more than a little bit suspect that Easley would call the notes "cryptic" when it appears that the only party behaving surreptitiously in E-mailgate 2008 is the governor himself.
Easley has given the appearance of taking the issue seriously by assembling a review panel, but we have reason to question the legitimacy of that.
Franklin Freeman, the committee's Easley-appointed chairman, is a top aide to the governor and announced publicly that he did not know how to turn a computer on and he did not communicate by e-mail.
In Easley's defense, the committee does include members from outside state government. But with reason to question both his motives behind the review and his legal interpretations, we still want an SBI investigation.
N.C. G.S. 132 defines a public record as any of a whole list of media "made or received … in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of N.C. government." It goes on to further define an "agency" as any of a slew of government units.
Basically, it's very inclusive, and deleting public records without the consent of the Department of Cultural Resources happens to be a misdemeanor offense in the state.
Public records laws fill a valuable role to society on the federal and local level by ensuring that the government is responsive to its people. They are premised on the belief that public records belong to the people and that without them, there is no possibility for a free marketplace of ideas.
North Carolinians should not tolerate any more of Easley's not-so-clever diversions. It's about time he gives up the fight.
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