Proposed FOI Ruling On Emails And Voice Mail Raises Concerns

HARTFORD (AP) — State and local government officials are lining up against a proposed ruling that would make their emails and voice messages open for public review.

A draft ruling being reviewed by the state Freedom of Information Commission would subject such communications to the state’s open meetings and records law, the Record-Journal of Meriden reported Wednesday.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, a lobbying and service association with members including 147 of the state’s 169 cities and towns, opposes the ruling and questions the commission’s authority to issue such a decision.

The Freedom of Information Commission is expected to continue a hearing on the draft ruling on March 3, when Gov John G. Rowland’s budget director, Marc Ryan, is expected to testify on the proposed decision. The commission heard three days of testimony late last month.

It is not clear whether the commission will vote on the draft policy after the next hearing or take time to deliberate.

Commission staff members began work on the draft ruling in 1997.

In addition to the municipalities group, the commission granted more than 50 parties status as participants in its deliberations on email and voice messages, including a dozen state and quasi-public agencies, said Eric V. Turner, a staff attorney and the commission’s director of public education.

The proposed decision says email and voice messages relating to the conduct of public business are public records, subject to the state Freedom of Information Act’s requirements and exceptions.

But opponents say emails and voice messages are difficult to track.

Computers store email digitally rather than on paper and messages can be retrieved in the future, sometimes even after they have been deleted. Voice messages, however, are audio recordings.

The proposed ruling would require that a number of emails and voice messages be retained for a limited time or permanently, depending on the guidelines of the state public records administrator.

Dean Pagani, Rowland’s chief of staff, said the sheer volume of voice messages that state officials and agencies receive daily makes keeping records of them difficult, time consuming, and potentially costly.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities shares the administration’s reservations about saving voice messages, and it objects to such a requirement as another burdensome state mandate.

CCM spokesman Kevin Maloney said the Office of Public Record Administration should set the rules. If the commission wants to make changes in state law, he said, the watchdog agency should work through the General Assembly.