Regardless of the furore over the request to release ‘racy emails’ documented in the article below – the question that should be asked is ‘How did this situation occur’
By deploying readily available, effective and affordable image scanning technology backed by a well communicated acceptable use policy – all of the embarrassment and bad publicity as illustrated below should have been avoided.
Additionally the Attorney General’s office and employees would have probably been saved from all of this fall-out with no need for disciplinary action or the understandable wrath of ordinary citizens.
Full article below
Attorney general rejects Tribune-Review request for ‘racy’ emails
By Brad Bumsted Tuesday Sept. 23, 2014, 5:00 p.m
HARRISBURG – Sexually explicit emails shared on state computers in the attorney general’s office do not fall under Pennsylvania’s open records law and are exempt because of an “ongoing internal investigation,” a private attorney operating as the attorney general’s designee told the Tribune-Review.
The memo from Sarah Yerger, a Harrisburg-based attorney for Post & Schell law firm, denied the Trib’s request for copies of the emails on behalf of Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
“To the extent the emails exist, the sought-after information does not constitute a ‘record’… that documents a transaction or activity of an agency,” said Yerger, a former senior deputy attorney general.
The emails include off-color comments and wisecracks about photos of partially clad and topless women, and men and women engaged in sexual acts.
Yerger said the emails “may be relevant to the investigation of violations of agency policies and the appropriate use of agency equipment.” She implied that the investigation isn’t a criminal one, citing a “non-criminal exception” to the Right to Know Law. Yerger said she could not give specifics about the investigation.
“We can’t comment,” said Kane’s spokeswoman, Renee Martin.
The office could not say how much money, if any, Kane paid the outside law firm to handle the open records request.
The Tribune-Review on Monday appealed the denial to Kane’s appeals officer. Yerger’s emailed letter arrived late Friday.
The emails containing “racy pictures” were shared by executives in the criminal prosecution section, according to an agent’s discrimination complaint that the office settled for $15,000 two weeks ago.
The emails were transmitted during at least a five-year period under former Attorney General Tom Corbett, now the state’s GOP governor, and his successor Linda Kelly, both of whom deny they knew the emails were being shared.
Though the emails were circulated largely before Kane took office in January 2013, sources say, as many as 30 employees who may have been involved still work for the agency. Some employees are union workers with grievance processes.
In a memo to senior staff after settling with agent Dianne M. Buckwash, Kane wrote that Buckwash complained “she had to work in an environment where sexually explicit materials were regularly distributed through the AG’s internal email system.”
“This kind of behavior is completely unacceptable and should never have happened,” Kane, a Democrat, said in the Sept. 4 statement. She said it “demonstrated a fundamental disregard and disrespect for the people who come to work here every day to serve the citizens of Pennsylvania.”
Cambria County Judge Norman A. Krumenacker III, who oversees a statewide grand jury, last week lifted a freeze on the release of the emails that he imposed in August. That freed Kane to release any that do not include grand jury material.
Krumenacker noted the matter was outside his jurisdiction, though he believed the emails were not “records” covered under the open records law.
Former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina, who prosecuted high-profile corruption cases, asked the judge to block release of the emails to the Trib and three other newspapers, Krumenacker’s opinion said.
Fina said he was under court-imposed restrictions and could not comment.