Records request will put City retention and access procedures to the test

GREENSBORO, NC -- George Hartzman made the following records request of the City of Greensboro:

Please provide any City Council and City of Greensboro Government communications not directed to City Council's government email addresses since the beggining [sic] of 2012.

That's an interesting request. It will reveal the extent to which city staff and city council abide by public records law regarding private email accounts. The Government Records Branch of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, which oversees government records retention and access policies says this about such communications in their guide to the retention and disposition of email:

If a personal e-mail account is used for government business, employees are required to forward all e-mail messages to their government e-mail account. Those employees who do not have a government e-mail account are expected to print those e-mail messages following the terms of a records retention and disposition schedule.

and...

If an employee has been approved to use an alternate technology, all messages created, received, or sent using IM, Short Messaging Services (SMS), mobile e-mail devices (such as BlackBerry™) or other alternate technologies during the course of government business are to be managed with the same care as e-mail messages, which includes activating the audit log and forwarding all e-mail messages to their government e-mail account. All messages created, received, or sent using alternate technologies are subject to the rules outlined in this e-mail policy.

Obviously, there are going to be plenty of emails and text messages floating around in private hands that will serve as tests for whether or not the respondents to Hartzman's request are properly retaining and providing access to these types of public records.