The fight for Gov. Perry's emails
From Sunshine Review
16 August 2008
John Washburn, a 45-year-old computer software tester from Wisconsin, was disgusted. He found Governor Perry's policy of deleting nearly all of his emails every seven days to be "obnoxiously short," and was not about to stand for it.[1]
In response to the policy, Washburn developed a computer program that requests all emails sent to and from the Governor's office every four days. The first batch yielded over 8,000 emails, which Washburn promptly put up online.
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[edit] Current email retention
While Perry's office retains policy papers and some correspondence for at least one year, the great majority of emails are defined as "transitory" and thus are deleted after a week. This policy began under Gov. George W. Bush and never altered. After Washburn's efforts, however, that may change soon.
[edit] Washburn's fight
The Dallas Morning news reported that Washburn's requests are forcing over 200 people in the Governor's office to copy all their emails and save them everyday. This highly time consuming process has also forced staffers to be more careful with what they say in emails.
The email requests have been challenged, and are scheduled to be reviewed by the attorney general. Currently Washburn is attempting to raise money to pay for requests covering emails from November to December 2007. The Governor's office is charging him $5,111 to fulfill the requests, citing the time it takes to remove personal information from the emails.
[edit] Washburn's answer
The simple solution, according to Washburn, is for the governor's emails to be stored on a server. Requests could then be answered with little time and cost incurred. He even volunteered to write the software himself, but found his offer declined.
For his efforts, Washburn is slated to receive the James Madison Award from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. The award is given annually for outstanding commitment and service in upholding First Amendment principles.[2]
