Dallas to Delete E-Mail Older than 90 Days

Information Management Journal, Sep/Oct 2009

E-MAIL

Anew e-mail retention policy directs Dallas City Hall to delete from its computer servers most e-mails 90 days or older. City officials say the policy will save storage space and money and will help it manage large amounts of data; critics say they worry about transparency and liability issues.

Prior to the creation of the 90day e-mail policy, Dallas lacked a formal document retention plan for electronic communications.

City Spokesman Frank Librio told The Dallas News that individual departments are working on document retention policies for email and paper records that extend beyond the 90-day limit, to six months or one year.

'It's up to each department to manage their specific document retention policy in accordance with their department's policy," he said.

Council Member Angela Hunt said the 90-day period is too short and does not allow enough time for citizens to inspect city communications, many of which are subject to public disclosure under Texas' Public Information Act.

'It can take more than 90 days for an issue to surface or become newsworthy," she told The Dallas News. "And if the communications about the issue are destroyed, we run the risk of not maintaining an open government."

City officials said e-mails that have been flagged for legal reasons, such as pending lawsuits or a public information act request, will be retained for longer than 90 days.

There is precedent in the state for the 90-day policy. For example, Houston government e-mails are retained only for as long as they're "administratively valuable," the city's record administrator told The Dallas Times. That means some emails are deleted right after they are composed, while others are kept on the city servers permanently. Houston's information technology department has its own policy of backing up all city e-mails for six months, although they can either expand or contract that timeframe at will.