Aiming to follow best practices about the retention of public records, Hamilton County will extend the period it holds onto all deleted emails from about two weeks to five years.
The county is “skating on thin ice” for not properly handling its responsibility of maintaining public records by sticking to the pre-existing policy of deleting emails after two weeks, Chief Finance Officer Lee Brouner said during a meeting of the county’s public records commission Wednesday.
The county’s previous policy dates back to 2004, when it was expensive to maintain records, Brouner said. At that time, Brouner said, the county adopted an aggressive approach to solving the issue by classifying everything in its email system as a “working paper,” meaning it could be permanently deleted after a few weeks. Those records will now be maintained for five years.
The panel adopted that change Wednesday. The change will go into effect immediately, Brouner said, although it may take a couple of weeks for the county’s information technology department to make the full transition.
“We think that is sufficiently more in spirit with the intent of records management, what we’re supposed to be doing under state law, than what we’re doing right now,” he said.