Emails, sent among elected officials and employees who work for government bodies like the Town of Camp Verde and all of its departments, are subject to the state’s public records law.
The Arizona state government has established guidelines about how long a municipality has to retain emails.
Camp Verde hasn’t been keeping up with that schedule, which has created problems when it comes to the volume of emails that have been kept around. Emails don’t really take up physical space, but they still pile up in data storage.
“Public records and requirements are something we have struggled with over the last couple of years,” Camp Verde Town Manager Russ Martin said. “We have tons and tons of emails, so many years of this and we haven’t cleaned it out.”
Martin said it causes problems when public record requests come in.
“We’re researching areas behind the time we should have kept them,” Martin said. “We haven’t swept the closets. I’m telling you very clearly we need to clean up our closet.”
Martin pointed to a recent request for all emails that had Camp Verde Economic Development Director Steve Ayers name in it.
That required going through a lot of emails going back years, many that weren’t required to be saved according to state law.
It takes time, Martin said, and sometimes it doesn’t really bear fruit.
“It takes IT time and that’s not cheap time,” he said.
Martin admitted he’s part of the problem. “I’ve never thrown away an email in my career.”
Still, it’s become enough of an issue where the town will have to start being more aware of how many emails are kept.
“If you come in and ask for a public records request in the future, we may not have those anymore,” Martin said.
Town Clerk Virginia Jones said that how long an email needs to be kept depends on the subject matter.
“We get so many garbage emails it’s bogging us down,” Jones said.
Some emails, like those involving contracts, have to be kept for six years after the contract has been fulfilled or revoked.
Emails involving things like public announcements, photographs or press releases have to be retained permanently. Emails that have nothing to do with the business of the town can be deleted immediately, according to the Arizona State Library Records Management Division.
