NC policies on government emails hard to police, lead to delays in public access

In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s now-famous use of her personal email address for official business while Secretary of State, WRAL has investigated North Carolina’s laws on public employee emails.

Federal and state law are similar: public business on private email accounts creates a public record. The account holder is the custodian of those records. WRAL interviewed SMVT’s Mike Tadych on the state law.

“There is no unified system of preservation,” said Mike Tadych, a Raleigh attorney who represents media outlets in open-records cases.

In the wake of the Easley scandal, the state implemented an email archiving system called Mimosa. It was supposed to increase accountability and public access, but it can still take months – even years – for the state to supply emails in response to records requests . . .

“If it’s some concern over how the sausage is made, well, the people that elected you probably have a right to know,” Tadych said. “In my opinion, they do have a right to know.”

You can read the entire story here.