California city announces plan to revamp email archiving policy

Contributed by Debbie Howlett (Vendredi, 17 décembre 2010) | Category : Email archiving

Following threats of legal action by a First Amendment advocacy group, the city of Irvine, California, has announced plans to overhaul its email archiving policy, according to a recent report from independent news provider the Voice of OC.

City officials agreed to revisit the policy, which has been unchanged since 2002, following a meeting with lawyers for Californians Aware. The Voice of OC originally reported last month that Irvine's email archiving policy calls for the destruction of messages after 30 days.

At the time, CalAware attorney Richard McKee called the policy "clearly illegal." McKee recently met with city officials to discuss the matter.

"We had a very constructive discussion on an issue of interest to us both. We agreed on every point discussed," Irvine city manager Sean Joyce told the Voice of OC.

Joyce and city clerk Sharie Apodaca said crafting a new email archiving policy may take months, according to the news provider.

The Voice of OC first reported in November on inconsistencies it found in Southern California cities' policies. It was revealed that no clear guidelines are followed, as some cities delete messages after 30 or 90 days, while others have no policy in place.