In the wake of the deletion of e-mails from former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, ordered by his former deputy, current Attorney General Drew Wrigley said he’s putting the finishing touches on an e-mail retention policy for his office.
Wrigley said there are state government provisions in place for record retention. But he said they're more "guidance" for record preservation, and individual agencies can have their own policies.
Wrigley said it is perfectly permissible to delete some, if not a majority, of e-mails.
"Everyone is sensitive to the fact that you can't pay to store every e-mail," Wrigley said. "About 95 percent of e-mail is not very important, anyway."
But Wrigley said e-mails with substantive work, or something you feel should be kept, should be retained.
"My personal view is that anyone who is in a state elected office — they and their primary deputy — I don't see a reason why those wouldn't be retained indefinitely."
The state Information Technology Department hired a private firm – Planet Technologies – to find out if the deleted e-mails could be resurrected – but the company said those accounts no longer exist, and the e-mails are gone.