Gov. Andrew Cuomo has reversed a policy that would have resulted in all emails by state officials and New York employees being deleted after 90 days.
Cuomo made the decision to end the newly enforced policy, after Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he would end the 90-day deletion policy for his office. It was first put in place when in 2007 when Cuomo was attorney general and Eliot Spitzer was governor, and when it was technologically much more difficult to store vast numbers of emails.
Bills were circulating in the legislature to outlaw the 90-day deletions and instead adopt a plan similar to that of the federal government, which keeps all emails for seven years.
Email policies for public officials are drawing national attention with the controversy over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using a personal email account for government business.
The governor is also raising the stakes. Cuomo’s spokeswoman says the governor will “convene a meeting with representatives from the legislature, the attorney general and the comptroller to come up with one uniform email retention and FOIL policy that applies to all State officials and agencies.” Currently, the legislature is not subject to the Freedom of Information Law, known as FOIL.
Several government reform groups are calling on Cuomo to act sooner, and issue an executive order to save all state emails for seven years. The groups include the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Citizens Union, and the New York Public Interest Research Group.
