New York email purge continues as Cuomo calls for meeting

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called on state leaders to meet with his office to discuss a new email retention policy, but as of yet has not issued any executive orders halting the current automated purge of state files.

Roughly contemporaneous to the high-profile attention being paid to emails sent by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it was revealed that Cuomo had expanded and more-fully implemented a policy to delete official email from his office and most state agencies after only 90 days. The policy, which Cuomo’s office says dates back eight years to the administration of Governor Eliot Spitzer, was reportedly expanded to include parts of the state government beyond the chief executive.

The expansion was first proposed in 2013, but the purge was not fully implemented until this year, according to February testimony before the New York legislature by the state’s IT chief.

About a week after the mass deletions were reported by the likes of Capital New York, Gotham Gazette, ProPublica and The Albany Times Union (and Al Jazeera), the New York Times picked up the story, noting that Cuomo started his 90-day purge policy while New York attorney general in 2007, and that the current AG Eric Schneiderman had continued the policy.

Schneiderman suspended the deletions that same day, telling staff in a Thursday letter that he is “committed to openness, transparency and restoring the trust of New Yorkers in their government.”

On Friday, a coalition of good government groups and transparency advocates called on Cuomo to issue an executive order requiring state emails to be preserved for seven years.

Whether in response to Times coverage or advocates’ calls, or in an attempt to bigfoot Schneiderman, Cuomo issued a statement through spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa calling on state officials to meet to form a single, unified email rule, saying “We believe the policy should honor transparency while maintaining efficiency.”

The call for efficiency still remains a mystery, as information experts have said there is “no technological reason that New York can't maintain these records indefinitely,” and people in and out of state government have said the cost of email retention is negligible.

Meanwhile, the state data purge continues ... which is not merely academic.

As previously noted, deleted emails have already played a role in pending litigation with the state over the banning of a private food truck from the grounds around Saratoga racetrack.

And the state claims it is not open to obstruction of justice charges because the email deletions “happened automatically.”

Emails have surfaced as key evidence in two other ongoing Cuomo scandals.

As reported by ProPublica and The Albany Times Union, emails from a mortgage industry lobbyist who was also working as a consultant to then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in 2007 and 2008 show a serious conflict of interest, as the lobbyist/consultant played a “critical role” in Cuomo’s investigation of financial misdealings in the mortgage industry.

And today, Capital New York reports that the Cuomo administration has “decided to preserve emails generated by the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption,” exempting them from the automated purge.

The commission’s short lifespan has come under heavy scrutiny by state investigators and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara for a host of problems that include undue influence from Cuomo aids and the mysterious disappearance of older emails from investigators’ electronic files in 2013.

“It just shows the need for a consistent email deletion policy that allows all records to be preserved for up to seven years," Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, told Capital. Dadey added that there was “no reason” there should have to be any special exceptions made for the Moreland probe.

Prior to Cuomo’s call for a meeting, State Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell and State Senator Liz Krueger, both New York City Democrats, sponsored legislation that would extend email retention requirements and also place the legislature under the jurisdiction of the state Freedom of Information Law. O’Donnell called the 90-day deletion policy “indefensible,” and told Capital, “Governor Cuomo’s proposed meeting to discuss a unified government policy on email is well-intentioned, but simply insufficient.”

O’Donnell called on Cuomo to follow the Attorney General’s office in immediately cancel the current purge. “Every single day we wait,” O’Donnell said, “emails are being deleted automatically that may prove relevant for future investigations.”