Ruling is sought on Perry's e-mail policy
May 30, 2008
Texas law requires e-mails to be kept in an electronic, searchable format. Governor Perry's office requires each staffer to print or save e-mails that need to be retained before they are deleted.
Written by April Castro, Fort Worth Star- Telegram
AUSTIN -- An attorney has asked the Texas attorney general to take legal action against Gov. Rick Perry's office to stop his policy of deleting e-mails every seven days.
Attorney Joe Larsen argues in the complaint that the policy violates Texas public information laws.
Attorney General Greg Abbott's office has 30 days to respond to the request, which was first filed May 14 and was updated Thursday. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Texas law requires e-mails to be kept in an electronic, searchable format, Larsen said. Perry's office requires each staffer to print or save e-mails that need to be retained before they are deleted.
"There is absolutely no way that all the e-mails that should be archived are being printed and filed," Larsen said.
A spokeswoman for Perry said they are confident the attorney general will uphold the legality of their policies.
In April, Larsen asked Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office to investigate the policy, saying it "insures that valuable public information is lost."
But Earle's office declined, citing a review of information received from Perry's office. Larsen complained that the prosecutors appeared to have "accepted everything the governor's office told them."
In response, Larsen submitted a public information request to Earle's office seeking correspondence between the two offices regarding the complaint. The request turned up one e-mail string discussing a conference call.
Larsen filed the complaint on behalf of a Wisconsin computer consultant who began sending requests to Perry's office twice a week, in an effort to bring attention to the e-mail deletion policy. Those requests were discontinued in November 2007.
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