Gov. Mike Easley today launched a "comprehensive review" of how his administration handles e-mail messages.

Easley announced that he has asked Franklin Freeman, one of his senior assistants, to lead a panel to review policies dealing with the retention of e-mail messages under the state's public record law. Easley said the review will pertain to the governor's office and all agencies in his administration.

“Use of e-mail and other electronic forms of communication have expanded in ways that were not contemplated in 1993 during a major update of our state’s public records law in which I was involved when I was Attorney General,” Easley said in a statement.

“Some people use e-mail instead of the telephone and others use e-mail instead of a fax machine. It is important to look at our policies to be sure records that are public are treated as such.”

Easley said meetings of the review panel will be open, and that the panel will hold public hearings to get input on the issue.

Easley wants the panel to recommend any changes needed in policies or procedures, or if any changes in state law are needed. The panel is to make a preliminary report by May 20.

Read more after the jump.

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Under a policy set by Gov. Mike Easley, state workers can trash their own e-mail.

The policy allows users to determine themselves if an e-mail has "no administrative value." Easley's legal counsel, Andrew Vanore Jr., said this week that an e-mail's value may expire immediately if the message's sender or recipient determines it is no longer needed.

Amanda Martin, an attorney for the N.C. Press Association, challenged that claim.

"I do not believe that this policy gives public employees unfettered discretion to destroy documents at their personal whim," she said. 

State Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett sent an e-mail to about 9,500 DOT employees this week restating the policy and telling them they can delete e-mail when they want.

A review of e-mail retained by DOT spokesman Ernie Seneca showed that he has been routinely deleting messages that would be of public interest, including weekly status reports from top officials and schedules of whom he has spoken with on recent issues. (N&O)

A former public affairs director said Gov. Mike Easley's office ordered e-mail sent to him destroyed.

Debbie Crane, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, was fired Tuesday amid the fallout from an N&O investigation of the state's mental health system, Dan Kane reports.

"The governor's office, press office, to bypass the public records laws, they ask the second you e-mail them anything, to kill it, then kill it again out of your trash so it doesn't exist," she said. "That's what they tell all the public affairs people, that they don't want to create any public records."

Seth Effron, a spokesman for Easley, denied the allegation and said that Crane was "dishonest, untruthful and insubordinate" and hindered reporters from getting information from the department.

If Crane's contention is true, it would be a violation of the state's public records law, said Amanda Martin, a press attorney for the N.C. Press Association.

Several public information officers in state agencies said they had not been told to delete e-mail, but Ernie Seneca, chief spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said he deletes all of his e-mails at the end of the day.

N&O reporters have made numerous requests for e-mail to the governor's office only to be told no such records exist.

Correction: An earlier version of this post included an incorrect word.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina is running ads against Richard Moore.

The group, which represents 55,000 state workers, ran a full-page ad in the News & Observer, the Charlotte Observer and the Asheville Citizen-Times today.

"State employees to Treasurer Richard Moore: Where are our pension fund documents?" the ad reads. It is signed by all 12 members of the executive committee.

The ad references a recent fight that SEANC has had with the Democratic gubernatorial candidate over a public records request. The group has also filed a lawsuit against Moore's office.

Erica Baldwin, SEANC's assistant director of communications, said that it was the first time in recent memory that the group had taken out such a large ad, but she said it has nothing to do with the ongoing Democratic gubernatorial primary.

"It's not a political statement at all, but a statement about public accountability," she said.

A full-page ad in the front section of the N&O on a Wednesday for a political organization would cost around $7,800, according to this rate card. It could be as much as $10,900 for the Asheville Citizen-Times, according to this rate card. A full-page ad in the Charlotte Observer would cost from $9,855 to $37,125. 

Amanda Martin, general counsel for the N.C. Press Association, said it was an unusual move.

"I have never known of a public records requester bolstering his or her request by an ad in the newspaper or anywhere else," she said.

Update: A spokeswoman for the treasurer's office said in a statement that the ad is incorrect.

"We are disappointed by this move by SEANC, as the Department of State Treasurer has followed both the spirit and the letter of the law in providing documents requested by SEANC," said Sara Lang.

The public-records exemption on water bills has another effect.

It is allowing the city of Raleigh to keep secret how much municipal water Pepsi Bottling Ventures is drawing for use in its Aquafina bottled water.

According to The Independent Weekly, a Durham-based alternative paper, North Carolina has a total of 28 bottling plants using municipal and groundwater, but all are protected by a provision exempting water bils from public scrutiny.

Raleigh, meanwhile, refuses to reveal exactly what amount Pepsi or their other largest users are pulling out of the municipal system—citing an exemption in the public records law. "The records you requested are enterprise billing records and not available to the public," wrote Raleigh City Attorney Thomas McCormick. 

Amanda Martin, attorney for the N.C. Press Association, told the Independent that doesn't make sense.

"We are in the middle of an extreme drought, and we are not even entitled to know which users are consuming inordinate amounts of water," she said.

Attention bloggers: Public records do not have to be on the Internet.

It came to Dome's attention recently that state agencies can legally decide not to make any information available online under the state's public records law.

"It is strictly discretionary with any public agency what they put online," explained press law expert Amanda Martin.

Many do, however. You can find voter registrations, lobbyists' filings and reports on state taxes, among other things. (But sadly, not much from the State Ethics Commission.)

The law will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future as well.

The N.C. Press Association has focused its efforts on strengthening public access to personnel records, among other fights, and so far bloggers have not organized an online records effort.