E-mail Public Documents Get Erased, Disappear
Date : 15 Jul 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkIn Hawaii, Gov. Linda Lingle's office allowed e-mails of her top aide to be purged. In North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley's administration allegedly ordered state workers to delete their e-mail correspondence with his office. And in Missouri, lawsuits claim Gov. Matt Blunt's office deleted e-mails and ordered the destruction of backup e-mail tapes.
These and other cases raise concerns that millions of public records in the form of e-mails may be disappearing before anyone outside government can read them.
Experts say e-mail archiving systems and better training for state employees will help ensure e-mail is not lost.
"We're not saying states are trying to do something bad," said Kevin Joerling, a certified records manager with the Association of Records Managers and Administrators, International, a trade group. "But they don't understand how important e-mail records can be, and they have to be protected."
A 50-state survey by the Associated Press of government e-mail retention earlier this year found a wide variety of laws and practices, with the vast majority of states officially treating e-mail like printed documents. But most of the states with e-mail laws allow officials to choose which ones to turn over in Freedom of Information requests and to decide on their own when e-mail records are deleted.
In Hawaii, a recently settled blackmail case that involved undisclosed allegations against Lingle's former chief of staff, Bob Awana, hinged on e-mails.
The blackmailer, Indian national Rajdatta Patkar, was sentenced last October to a year in prison for demanding $35,000 by e-mail from Awana. According to Patkar's lawyer, Pamela Byrne, her client discovered e-mails that showed two women served as escorts for Awana and a Hawaii businessman on an official state trip...