RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley and his lawyer said Tuesday that the administration isn't violating the state's public records law by deleting some e-mail messages and throwing away a letter.

A state press association lawyer disagreed, saying the handwritten note that Easley disposed of was indisputably a public record.

Questions about the handling of documents arose last week. Debbie Crane, whom Easley fired as chief spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said governor's press office officials had for years instructed colleagues in various agencies to delete e-mail messages to the governor's office, which are public records under state law.

DHHS and the Easley administration have been under scrutiny about controversial reforms of the state's mental health system.

Easley on Sunday said the note from Carmen Hooker Odom, the former DHHS secretary, was hand-delivered to the Executive Mansion within the past week. The governor disclosed the letter while discussing why Hooker Odom would not talk with reporters about the reforms.

Asked whether a copy was available, Easley said he had thrown it away. "I chunked it," he said.

At a news conference Tuesday, the governor said Hooker Odom's letter was personal correspondence that did not "discuss anything of public consequence" and so is not subject to the records law.

"It was never intended to be public," Easley said. "Carmen sent me a handwritten personal note. It didn't have anything to do with public policy. It's not a public record, not something that I'm required to log and maintain. I read it and disposed of it."

Easley said Sunday he habitually disposes of mail: "When I read something, unless it's charts or something or budgetary stuff, when I read it I get rid of it. I throw it away."

Easley's legal counsel, Andrew A. Vanore Jr., said Tuesday it's OK if Easley throws away mail, because copies have been filed before it is given to him.

The Hooker Odom letter was not copied because it was not received by mail, Vanore said. With no copy in existence, Vanore said, the governor deserves the benefit of the doubt that it contained nothing of public interest.

John Bussian, a lawyer for the N.C. Press Association, said that isn't Easley's call.

"The legal status does not turn on whether somebody intended it to be public," Bussian said. "If it did, then anybody could use that as a license to steal from the public what it is entitled to know."

Hooker Odom, who resigned from DHHS last year, could not be reached Tuesday and has repeatedly declined to be interviewed.

Her note has become a contentious point in the debate over the 2001 mental health reform. A recent News & Observer series showed that mental health reforms have wasted more than $400 million on unneeded services, and that patient abuse and neglect are widespread in the state's mental hospitals.

The governor has said his administration "vigorously opposed" the reform, though statements at the time by Hooker Odom, whom he appointed, indicate support. The governor signed the legislation.

Policy versus law

At his Tuesday news conference, Easley said his legal staff had reviewed his administration's policies regarding the retention of public records.

"What we're doing is consistent with policy," he said.

It is not clear, however, that those policies are consistent with the spirit of the state law that governs public access to government records. It is a misdemeanor for someone to "destroy, sell, loan or otherwise dispose of any public records ... without the consent of the Department of Cultural Resources."

Asked about deletion of e-mail messages, Vanore provided a records retention policy for the governor's press office dated Nov. 12, 2001, and signed by Easley and Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Lisbeth C. Evans, along with other administration officials. That policy, one of many that outline records retention rules for state agencies, affirms that e-mail is public record, but says messages may be deleted when their "reference or administrative value" ends.

"E-mail of ephemeral or rapidly diminishing value may be erased or destroyed when the user has determined that its reference value has ended," the policy states.

According to Vanore, that means the governor's staff members have authority from the secretary of cultural resources, who is appointed by Easley, to delete e-mail messages immediately after they are sent or received if the employee determines the messages are no longer needed.

"They do have a record retention policy that specifically, lawfully, allows them to delete any e-mails that they feel has no further administrative value," Vanore said. "I assume they're doing things in the right way, as they should do. I assume public officials or other state employees are following the law. I always strive to do that."

Asked whether this policy adheres to the state's public records law, Attorney General Roy Cooper declined to comment through a spokeswoman Tuesday, citing the possibility that there may be litigation on the issue. The News & Observer's lawyer, in a March 4 letter to the governor's office, asked that all e-mail messages be preserved and stated the newspaper's intent to pursue legal remedies if they are not.

"This is an area where litigation has been threatened," said Noelle Talley, Cooper's spokeswoman. "It would be inappropriate for the attorney general to respond."

The N&O filed a public records request March 6 asking for e-mail messages sent or received by the governor and seven members of his staff. Late Tuesday, the newspaper received a box containing printouts of what appeared to be hundreds of e-mail messages.

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