Otterblog

Email-retention policies are not the sexiest three words in the English language. They’re not even the sexiest words in the English language of bureaucrats, but there’s a battle/skirmish being waged in Raleigh about how the government stores and keeps email. Here’s the link to Gov. Easley’s release on the matter. The background is that a press person at DHHS was fired after a series in the N&O about woeful mental health care. On her way out she said that the Easley administration was telling folks to delete their email. Easley folks said no, then others came forward to say yeah, sort of.

Email has become a treasure trove of sorts for reporters. Most newspapers have set up systems with local governments where they routinely get the email of city manager or the like just forwarded to their inboxes. We love it. Public officials don’t. Lots of reasons why. First, it’s a pain separating out email that is considered a public record and those that aren’t (such as email involving personnel). Second, the use of email is too pervasive. It is the way we communicate, and so the amount of email on a particular subject can be huge. Third, people say things in email that they wouldn’t say over the phone or in person or in an OFL (old-fashioned letter).

I think that everybody in the state has conceded that emails are public records, so the real question is how to manage and disseminate them to the public (whether the press or otherwise). It’s costly (both time and money). Nobody probably wants to read every email that Gov. Easley writes, but the idea of having 10 mm state of north carolina emails flood your inbox everyday is a little overwhelming as well. As with all large amounts of data, if you can’t sort, you’re lost in the woods.

If I was a betting person, I would look for legislation on this in the 2009 session, when a new governor and a new General Assembly try to figure out what makes sense in a digital age with a public looking for transparency in government.