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Leading in secret

Story by Sophia Spencer

8:32 p.m. Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Topeka — In this age of technology, getting public records should be simple, no photocopying, just a click of a button.

But when the button your local officials hit is delete, then it starts to look like they're Leading in Secret.

Fact! Emails are public record. The governor of Missouri seems to know.

"E-mails are public record," Matt Blunt said on YouTube.

But when I petitioned the City of Topeka for e-mails regarding limb pickup after the ice storm and the helicopter veto, city information officer David Bevens asked me over the phone, "What if I've deleted them..?"

I responded, saying, "We can find deleted e-mails. I have a delete box."

We tracked down some tax paying Topekans to see if this was important to them.

Jennifer Junod said, "I think they ought to be open and upfront with the public and let them know what's going on."

And you can get this information, too.

Did you know you can petition for public records?

"No, I didn't know that," Amanda Lusso of Topeka said.

Yes, you are part of the public in public records.

Back to the conversation with the city information officer, he keeps insisting my request somehow was unreasonable.

I responded, "All I know is e-mails are public record, so why would you delete something that's a public record?"

We went digging for the facts on electronic records like e-mails and found that according to the Kansas Electronic Records Management Guidelines, state agencies are legally obligated not only to retain all of the electronic records they create, but also to provide public access to them.

Cities fall under those same guidelines.

I also wanted to know why the city was asking me about deleting the e-mails and being so difficult. I went to the Kansas Association of Broadcasters and their lawyer said cities know that e-mails are public documents and know they should make them available and the only reason they wouldn't be helpful could be to make a smokescreen and throw me off track.

(K.S.A 45-403). specifically states

Government records are public property and cannot be destroyed without authorization from the State Records Board or through an approved retention and disposition schedule.

Two days after the phone conversation, the city did send me a letter from their attorney John Dowell, saying he would attempt to locate the requested records over the next two weeks.

Just today, we got a press release from David Bevens. In it, he explains the e-mail practices at the City of Topeka, saying, "Just like outdated and unwanted paper, correspondence and records, which we throw away, recycle or shred (yes we shred sensitive court documents, police records, legal files, and proprietary records, some that are at the end of the required retention period) our e-mail system provides the same capability."

Later he writes, "Yes we delete unnecessary e-mails. In fact, the Information Technology Department periodically encourages City employees to delete unnecessary, outdated e-mails."

The information we requested was from Mid-December, which is hardly "outdated".

He also says the city has 900 e-mail users and it would be monumental, expensive and therefore absurd to store ALL e-mails they receive.

I'm just going to go ahead and disagree that it's absurd, even if it is expensive. This situation of documenting and filing electronic records is in no way unique to the city of Topeka.

We'll be doing a follow up to make sure we get the requested records from the city. Their attorney did say he had some of what we asked for already.