July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
E-mail records an issue (09/02/2008)
Jay County Commissioners
By By STEVE GARBACZ-
Government employees will have to be a bit more careful about what they e-mail in the future.
The Jay County Commissioners discussed this morning an informational packet sent by the Commission on Public Records about its e-mail retention policy.
There have been nudges from the agency for governmental units everywhere to start keeping track of e-mails sent and received since some are public records and must be surrendered if requested.
If the keeping of records becomes mandated, the county will need to add additional infrastructure to track, sort and save all of those e-mails.
"Software is going to be the key," said attorney Lon Racster. Racster pointed out that a program would ideally be able to sort e-mail depending on type, since some could contain confidential topics, such as medical information, which would not fall under public records.
The county would also need a new computer server to save those files, which could be in storage for 10 years or longer. Early estimates for the server costs could run as much as $30,000.
"Technology costs the taxpayer a lot of money," said commissioners' president Milo Miller Jr.
While an e-mail-saving system is well in the future, the commissioners said they should probably meet with a representative for the initiative and discuss it in further detail including what the county will need to keep, how long they need to keep it, and how much its going to cost.
"Our offices say we got to have (e-mail)," commissioner Gary Theurer said when Miller suggested, not seriously, that the courthouse does away with e-mail.
"We're stuck," Miller said.
In other business Tuesday, the commissioners:
•Signed a temporary permit brought in by Rock Fuqua of Fuqua Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep to hold a weeklong car sale in the county. The sale will take place near the end of September.
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The Jay County Commissioners discussed this morning an informational packet sent by the Commission on Public Records about its e-mail retention policy.
There have been nudges from the agency for governmental units everywhere to start keeping track of e-mails sent and received since some are public records and must be surrendered if requested.
If the keeping of records becomes mandated, the county will need to add additional infrastructure to track, sort and save all of those e-mails.
"Software is going to be the key," said attorney Lon Racster. Racster pointed out that a program would ideally be able to sort e-mail depending on type, since some could contain confidential topics, such as medical information, which would not fall under public records.
The county would also need a new computer server to save those files, which could be in storage for 10 years or longer. Early estimates for the server costs could run as much as $30,000.
"Technology costs the taxpayer a lot of money," said commissioners' president Milo Miller Jr.
While an e-mail-saving system is well in the future, the commissioners said they should probably meet with a representative for the initiative and discuss it in further detail including what the county will need to keep, how long they need to keep it, and how much its going to cost.
"Our offices say we got to have (e-mail)," commissioner Gary Theurer said when Miller suggested, not seriously, that the courthouse does away with e-mail.
"We're stuck," Miller said.
In other business Tuesday, the commissioners:
•Signed a temporary permit brought in by Rock Fuqua of Fuqua Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep to hold a weeklong car sale in the county. The sale will take place near the end of September.
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