Over 2 Years and Waiting
Alaska now has only a few months to release 25,000 pages of e-mails from former half-term Governor Sarah Palin and her administration. So far, Alaska has taken over 986 days to collect and review records from the Palin administration that was in office for only 966 days, or just over 2.5 years.
The Delays with Finding E-mails
Alaska attorney general John Burns granted the 15th requested extension, but assured everyone that the new deadline is “firm.” He explained the reason for the delays: “The Governor’s Office has responded to several other very broad requests for Governor Palin’s emails, including eight requests that required review of over 25,000 pages. Due to limitations of the state’s email system, just collecting the email records responsive to those requests took several months.” [Emphasis added]
In addition to the incredible number of delays and extensions (15 extensions may be a record for FOIA requests), the governor’s office is asking those that request the records to pay for their production. And the price isn’t trivial. According to MSNBC, it will cost over $15 million dollars to get the documents. Here is their breakdown:
Let’s look at a typical request. When the Associated Press asked for all state e-mails sent to the governor’s husband, Todd Palin, her office said it would take up to six hours of a programmer’s time to assemble the e-mail of just a single state employee, then another two hours for “security” checks, and finally five hours to search the e-mail for whatever word or topic the requestor is seeking. At $73.87 an hour, that’s $960.31 for a single e-mail account. And there are 16,000 full-time state employees. The cost quoted to the AP: $15,364,960. (And that’s not including the copying costs since they apparently have to print all documents in hard copy, review and then copy them for production).
This is appalling and frankly way out of line with typical e-discovery costs. In fact, I am sure that the judges and e-discovery experts who drafted the Judge’s Guide to Cost-Effective E-Discovery would reject these cost estimates out of hand. Alaska and other state governments should already be prepared to answer similar Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in a responsible and timely manner. To take over 2 years and charging millions of dollars undermines the concept of a transparent government. And if it is true that the delays are brought on by the state’s inefficient IT infrastructure, then they need to talk to ZL.
ZL’s Unified Archive as the Solution
Using ZL’s Unified Archive, Alaska (or any other government agency) can search, find, and review e-mails from one platform in minutes. Citizens and journalist will no longer have to wait years or be charged millions for access to information that should be readily available to them. They will be better able to hold their state governments accountable. And a government accountable to its citizens will benefit everyone.
