Easley panel calls for longer e-mail storage
Critics say mass deleting occurs
By: Devin Rooney, State & National Editor
Issue date: 5/22/08 Section: State & National
The panel assembled by Gov. Mike Easley to review public records law regarding e-mails made its recommendation to the governor Tuesday.
The panel recommended that Gov. Easley extend the storage period for e-mails from 30 days to 5 years, and that he require all state employees to complete public records training.
The panel proposed a system for data back-up that would also be archived to make the records searchable and more readily available to the public.
But critics say the plan falls short because it doesn't require employees to save all e-mail correspondence related to state business, and employees will still be able to delete e-mails that could be significant to the public.
Sue Wilson, president of the Sunshine Center at Elon University and the chief of the North Carolina and South Carolina Associated Press bureau, is among those critics.
"I'm disappointed that they did not recommend policy changes that would have better protected e-mails from the kind of deleting that some in the administration have told us has gone on rather routinely," Wilson said.
"They're not their documents, they're our documents and whether they're on e-mail or on paper they are documents that belong to the public."
State Auditor Leslie Merritt wrote to Franklin Freeman, the chair of the panel, stating that e-mails aren't just important for the general public.
"They tend to confirm the occurrence of actual events and provide a unique window into the operation of state government," Merritt said in the letter.
"E-mails serve as information in the audit trail," he added.
The issue of saving e-mails has brought to light a fundamental disagreement about what constitutes a public record.
Gov. Easley has said that documents without lasting administrative value do not have to be saved.
This argument has been challenged by 10 N.C. news organizations who filed a lawsuit in April, alleging that Gov. Easley has willfully violated public records law.
Easley filed a motion on May 13 asking that the suit be thrown out because it fails to prove that the records exist, and that the demands of the suit are too far-reaching.
This motion means the suit could ultimately end up in court.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
The panel recommended that Gov. Easley extend the storage period for e-mails from 30 days to 5 years, and that he require all state employees to complete public records training.
The panel proposed a system for data back-up that would also be archived to make the records searchable and more readily available to the public.
But critics say the plan falls short because it doesn't require employees to save all e-mail correspondence related to state business, and employees will still be able to delete e-mails that could be significant to the public.
Sue Wilson, president of the Sunshine Center at Elon University and the chief of the North Carolina and South Carolina Associated Press bureau, is among those critics.
"I'm disappointed that they did not recommend policy changes that would have better protected e-mails from the kind of deleting that some in the administration have told us has gone on rather routinely," Wilson said.
"They're not their documents, they're our documents and whether they're on e-mail or on paper they are documents that belong to the public."
State Auditor Leslie Merritt wrote to Franklin Freeman, the chair of the panel, stating that e-mails aren't just important for the general public.
"They tend to confirm the occurrence of actual events and provide a unique window into the operation of state government," Merritt said in the letter.
"E-mails serve as information in the audit trail," he added.
The issue of saving e-mails has brought to light a fundamental disagreement about what constitutes a public record.
Gov. Easley has said that documents without lasting administrative value do not have to be saved.
This argument has been challenged by 10 N.C. news organizations who filed a lawsuit in April, alleging that Gov. Easley has willfully violated public records law.
Easley filed a motion on May 13 asking that the suit be thrown out because it fails to prove that the records exist, and that the demands of the suit are too far-reaching.
This motion means the suit could ultimately end up in court.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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