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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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