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Records/Archives in the News Part 08 01/23/00



Records/Archives in the News r000119a
There are 4 stories in this posting

Albuquerque Journal 1/19/00
E-mail policy debated

Bergen Record 1/10/00
Heights climbs back after fire

Washington Post 1/19/00
County land record may find home on Net

Toledo Blade 1/19/00
Ex-officer guilty of theft, falsifying records


________________________________________________________________
Albuquerque Journal 1/19/00
E-mail policy debated

by Miguel Navrot
<snip>
SANTA FE -- City officials are considering revamping their e-mail 
preservation policy after learning that former City Manager Mike Mier ordered 
all his electronic correspondence purged before leaving the city. 
Mier, who announced his retirement Dec. 31 and left the post Jan. 10, said 
Tuesday that he had his electronic mail purged from city computers 
periodically during his 19-month tenure. He also said he didn't know the 
correspondence could be considered public documents. 
"When I did it, it wasn't that I thought I was doing anything wrong," Mier 
said. "I didn't think anything of it." 
Though a relatively new area for freedom of information laws, e-mail composed 
on government equipment is believed by some to be a public document -- and, 
in many cases, open to public scrutiny. 
That's the position of the state Attorney General's Office, said spokeswoman 
Sam Thompson. She also noted some e-mail that contains information regularly 
considered exempt under open-meetings provisions would also be exempt. 
Thompson listed attorney-client messages as an example. 
The Albuquerque-based New Mexico Foundation for Open Government also is 
treading into unexplored areas about e-mail as public policy. 
"I've never had this come up," President Bob Johnson said Tuesday. "As I 
understand it, they are (public)." 
City Attorney Mark Basham said Tuesday that he had previously consulted other 
office lawyers about Mier's deleting messages, though he couldn't recall when 
those talks happened. 
"It was determined the periodic deleting of e-mail was proper," the attorney 
said. 
The city's policy on storing public documents includes provisions about 
e-mail. According to city policy, e-mail should be stored "until no longer 
needed for reference but no longer than 30 days after date created." 
City spokesman Juan Ríos, who said the administration doesn't know what kind 
of correspondence Mier had through city e-mail, acknowledged that messages 
sent by Mier could have been needed as reference for his successor, Frank 
DiLuzio. Such messages could have fallen under the city's protection policy. 
<snip>
<snip>
City officials learned from computer system staffers that Mier ordered his 
computers purged of e-mail following an Inspection of Public Records Act 
request from the Albuquerque Journal. 
Ríos said that all of Mier's e-mails have been erased from the city's 
computer network and aren't retrievable, thus denying the Journal's request. 
Basham noted that purging e-mail messages is a way of housecleaning: "We 
can't store these things forever." 
Ríos disagreed. 
"Our position, administratively, is that there is clearly a policy. There are 
policies that are outlined by state statute and city guidelines," Ríos said. 
Ríos also said it is the city's policy to prevent employees from deleting 
e-mail from a city-issued computer without approval from a proper "office or 
department." 
Mayor Larry Delgado said Tuesday that he recently learned of Mier's ongoing 
purging but didn't know whose authority it came from. He also said violations 
of the Public Records Act, if they occurred, will surface. 
"I have no idea of what was being done," Delgado said. "If there are 
violations of the Public Records Act, we have to make sure the persons 
responsible are held responsible." 
Delgado, who also said the issue is "troublesome" for him, acknowledged that 
electronic correspondence is a new area for the city's legal staff. He said 
he hasn't spoken with Mier about the actions and has no plans to do so. 
"He's not my employee anymore," Delgado said. 
Mier said that he believed at the time his actions were proper. 
<snip>

________________________________________________________________
Bergen Record 1/10/00
Heights climbs back after fire

by Richard Owen
<snip>
HASBROUCK HEIGHTS?Page by page, file by file, and milk crate by milk crate, 
municipal employees are slowly putting the town back together following the 
disastrous fire that destroyed Borough Hall on Dec. 10. 
The smell of charred rubble still clings to the stacks of documents that 
arrive each day at the ?new? Borough Hall set up in the old First Union bank 
office at 218-222 Boulevard. Most of these documents have been damaged by 
water and are headed for the basement, where workers separate them and lay 
them on the floor to dry. 
?They?re smoky, smelly, and dirty, but it appears that everything that we 
need has been saved,? said Conchita Parker, the borough tax collector. ?All 
in all, we?ve been very lucky.? 
Parker made her remarks while standing behind the bulletproof glass that once 
protected First Union tellers. These quarters will serve as the borough?s 
makeshift offices for at least a year, probably longer. 
Gone are the private offices that borough employees once enjoyed. 
?We?re elbow to elbow, but at least we know each other,? Parker said. 
The new site may be temporary, but only time will tell whether the smoky odor 
that hangs on documents will be a permanent reminder of the back-to-back 
disasters in December. 
Tragedy first struck the borough around 5 p.m. on Dec. 9, when a twin-engine 
plane bound for Teterboro Airport crashed into a back yard off Central 
Avenue, killing the pilot and three passengers. No one on the ground died, 
but Hasbrouck Heights spent the next 24 hours putting out the fire and 
working with the Federal Aviation Administration to clear the wreckage. 
The next night, the Hasbrouck Heights Council met at Borough Hall to discuss 
the crash. Hours after the meeting ended, a fire began in the council 
chambers and quickly spread to the attic. Fanned by 20-mph winds and fueled 
by thousands of dusty documents stored in the attic, the fire destroyed the 
building and routed the Fire and Police departments from the first floor. 
The fire destroyed the building. As soon as the smoke cleared, Hasbrouck 
Heights officials had to find some way to keep the government running?even if 
there was no place to go?and make room for even more paperwork. 
<snip>
<snip>
In the days immediately after the fire, Kronyak said his most pressing 
concern was keeping the books balanced?even if he didn?t know exactly whether 
any of the books had survived the fire. ?Our most pressing concern was to 
keep paying our bills and keep making payroll,? Kronyak said. 
A month later, workers are still sifting through the rubble, and it remains 
uncertain whether Borough Hall will be razed. So far, the borough?s insurance 
company has not completed its damage estimate, which is expected to include 
several million dollars in damage to the building structure, furnishings, and 
equipment. 
In the meantime, Kronyak estimates, the borough has spent $75,000 to $85,000 
having water-damaged records freeze-dried, with $30,000 to $40,000 more spent 
on overtime. The council authorized an emergency appropriation of $278,603 to 
cover costs. 
The fiscal ledgers did suffer some water damage but were not destroyed. And 
Kronyak said the borough?s computer consultant spent days retrieving records 
from the hard drives. 
Tax records are in order, as well, and the next quarterly payment is due Feb. 
1. But because parking is scarce downtown, borough officials request that 
residents mail their payments to Borough Hall. 
Some items, though, are gone forever. Recreation Director Andy Feintuch said 
the scrapbooks that he had been keeping since 1972 on borough youth programs 
were destroyed in the fire. 
?The games will go on, and life will go on,? Feintuch said. ?But some things 
can never be replaced.? 
<snip>
<snip>
The borough passed another milestone on its road to recovery last week. On 
Wednesday, Judge Harry H. Chandless Jr. convened the first Municipal Court 
session since Borough Hall burned down. 
The courtroom was in the basement of the Masonic lodge at Boulevard and 
Division Street. The judge?s bench was a folding chair and card table. Behind 
him the court dockets lay on a pool table covered by a tarpaulin?a far cry 
from the stately mahogany-paneled courtroom that went up in flames with the 
rest of Borough Hall. 
Chandless kept his sense of humor as he grabbed a summons from the pile and 
held it aloft. The summons was grayed by soot, and water had warped the 
paper. 
?The municipal building burned to the ground, but God saved all these 
summonses,? Chandless joked. ?Plus, the only other room that didn?t burn down 
was the tax collector?s office.? 
<snip>

_________________________________________________________________
Washington Post 1/19/00
County land record may find home on Net

by Josh White
<snip>
Prince William County Circuit Court officials are close to finalizing a plan 
that would put the court?s land record databases onto a system that would be 
accessible via the Internet, allowing users to view the court?s 5 million 
microfilm images without going to the courthouse. 
The million-dollar project?funded by state and local filing fees collected 
over the past three years?could be up and running as soon as summer, giving 
county residents and regional businesses the opportunity to view county 
records with nothing more than a standard Internet browser. 
?I think that it is a revolutionary concept in the way that we do business at 
the courthouse,? Clerk of Courts David C. Mabie ® said yesterday, adding that 
it will launch the county court into a new era of technology. ?Everything in 
the past has been predicated by a trip to the courthouse.? 
At first, the system will offer digital images of the county?s land records, 
going back more than 60 years. The clerk?s office also plans to make marriage 
licenses, business trade name information and partnership information 
available sometime in the summer. 
Deputy Clerk Wendy Jones said the project is part of a statewide initiative 
to mainstream and computerize land records management in order to save 
valuable storage space while offering widespread access to public documents. 
The images, which are now stored on miles of microfilm, will be moved to 
CD-ROMs that will carry digital files instead of photographs. 
?The records rooms are now filled with microfilm, and we?re out of space,? 
Jones said yesterday. ?The CD-ROMs don?t take up a lot of space and offer a 
much better and clearer image.? 
Although criminal court docket and indictment information could be available 
online in the future, Mabie said his office is evaluating whether such 
information should be readily available over the Internet. He said one of his 
concerns is allowing easy access to a person?s criminal history or marriage 
history from home computers all over the world. 
<snip>
<snip>
Mabie and Jones said that the county is negotiating with a vendor to purchase 
the hardware for the new system, and that the county could have a contract 
within the next few months. 
Mabie, who was reelected to his second eight-year term in November, said the 
records management project is one of his primary goals, calling it ?the 
biggest decision a clerk will make in the history of the courts in our 
county.? 
<snip>

_________________________________________________________________
Toledo Blade 1/19/00
Ex-officer guilty of theft, falsifying records

by Dale Emch
<snip>
A former Toledo police officer who once was the department?s most senior 
employee was found guilty yesterday of two felonies and four misdemeanors 
stemming from the manipulation of paperwork for automobile and boat titles. 
Lucas County Common Pleas Judge James Bates found O.J. McLaughlin, 57, guilty 
after the former officer entered pleas of no contest to theft in office and 
forgery, both felonies, and four misdemeanor counts of falsification. 
McLaughlin worked in the department?s records section handling the 
disposition of seized and abandoned vehicles before resigning in September in 
the wake of the investigation that led to the charges. 
He committed theft in office by manipulating paperwork in 1995 so a towing 
company could take possession of an abandoned van that was scheduled to be 
auctioned by the city, according to John Weglian, chief of the special units 
division of the county prosecutor?s office. 
<snip>
<snip>
Jerome Phillips, McLaughlin?s attorney, agreed that his client wasn?t paid 
for changing the paperwork. 
?Some of these transactions were for the benefit of the tow operators who had 
done things to benefit the city without being paid,? Mr. Phillips said. 
McLaughlin?s forgery conviction resulted from a 1995 incident in which he 
helped an acquaintance gain the necessary paperwork to get an Ohio title for 
a boat purchased in Michigan. 
<snip>
<snip>
The four falsification convictions stemmed from falsified title work on 
vehicles from 1994 to 1997, according to the prosecutor?s office. 
McLaughlin could be incarcerated for 51/2 years. 
<snip>





PETER A.KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM

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