Government records, including email:
- Facilitate efficient conduct of government programs and services
- Ensure effective management of government information
- Provide adequate documentation of government activities
Public officials are legally obligated to create and maintain records that adequately document agency business (Code of Alabama 1975, § 36-12-2).
- Email is an important communication tool for conducting government business in the State of Alabama.
The use of official government email accounts is encouraged for the conduct of public business.
- Alabama issues a professional e-mail account for each new employee and public official.
The retention of email is dependent upon the content of the email, not where the email account resides.
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Alabama law stipulates that any document is a government record when it is created by a government employee in the course of conducting public business - not limited to those only created and/or stored on government property. (Code of Alabama 1975, § 41-13-1).
Alabama Employee Handbook states:
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“all electronic communications are expected to comply with relevant Federal and State laws as well as State policies and standards formulated to ensure the integrity and availability of e-mail system resources.”
Email messages are subject to the same retention requirements as the same type of records in another format or medium.
- Government e-mail messages must be retained and disposed of according to the records disposition authority (RDA) approved by the appropriate records commission for that agency (Code of Alabama 1975, §§ 41-13-21 and 41-13-23).
- Record retention is dependent on the information in the record, not the format.
- Intentionally destroying, mutilating, removing, or altering a record can be a Class A Misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $6,000 fine. (Code of Alabama 1975, §§ 13A-5-7 and 13A-5-12).
Email records are subject to the same legal requirements regarding access as any of the agency’s other government records, as governed by Alabama’s open records law (Code of Alabama 1975, § 36-12-40).