[Vision2020] Close that Loophole!

[Saundra Lund]

Let's hope this is carefully monitored in light of the evidence that Palin
used personal email accounts for state business specifically to avoid
official public records requests.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/554290.html

Close that loophole
A victory for public access to official state records

Published: October 12th, 2008 09:22 PM
Last Modified: October 12th, 2008 11:32 PM

State Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers confirmed the obvious Friday. He
ruled that e-mails sent or received through Gov. Sarah Palin's personal
e-mail accounts are public records if they concern official state business.

That's a victory for Andree McLeod, a Republican activist and former state
employee who pressed the freedom of information case. Gov. Palin contends
McLeod is disgruntled because she didn't get a job in the Palin
administration.

Her potential self-interest aside, Ms. McLeod won a victory for all Alaskans
with her case. The state's public records law would be almost meaningless if
officials could circumvent it by using their personal e-mail accounts. 

Gov. Palin made heavy use of personal e-mail for state business, until a
hacker broke into one of them. Because those personal e-mails fall outside
the state's official archiving and retrieval system, some of them may be
lost forever. 

That would be unacceptable. State e-mail business has to be conducted in a
way that preserves all official state e-mails and makes them available for
public disclosure as the law provides.

Judge Stowers declined to ban the use of personal e-mail accounts for
official state business. That call may be acceptable -- as long as the state
can ensure the e-mails are properly saved and made accessible. 

Judge Stowers should keep a close eye on what e-mails the state is able to
retrieve for Ms. McLeod's case. If there are any gaps, the judge should
require the state to arrange a system that ensures official state business
e-mails are fully preserved.

BOTTOM LINE: State officials can't avoid the public records law by doing
state business on personal e-mail accounts.