Activist blocks purges of Perry e-mail

Nov. 10, 2007

Associated Press

AUSTIN — After learning that Gov. Rick Perry has his staff destroy e-mail records after seven days, a political activist decided this week to do what he can to stop the practice.

John Washburn, a Milwaukee-based software consultant, programmed his computer to automatically send out two requests a week for all government e-mail generated by Perry staffers. Under state law, records aren't supposed to be destroyed once somebody has asked for them.

"I've kind of put a stick in the spokes of the wheel," he said.

"The whole point of public records is to make those ongoing transactions and government policy decisions more transparent to the public. If they're gone, by definition, that's about as opaque as it gets," he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody told The Associated Press on Saturday that Perry didn't initiate the e-mail policy, which was also in place under former Gov. George W. Bush.

"We continued the policy when Gov. Perry took office," she said.

On Friday, Moody said the governor's office will comply with Washburn's request, which prompted officials to deactivate the automatic destruction of the records.

"That was disabled (Thursday)," Moody said. The governor's office is "holding all e-mail correspondence and not wiping clean the server after seven days."

She said it's typically up to each employee of the governor's office to set aside and save e-mails that they believe should be preserved as public records. Otherwise, they're automatically purged.

"We believe our staff is acting lawfully and in good faith," said Moody, who added that Perry's office receives a "high volume" of e-mail and doesn't have the server space to keep them forever.