Notes say Easley's office told workers to kill e-mail

A lawyer for the governor says the notes don't mean that. An N&O lawyer says they do

State government public information officers were instructed by Gov. Mike Easley's press office to delete e-mail to and from the Governor's Office, according to notes the Governor's Office released Saturday.

Andrew A. Vanore Jr., a lawyer who works for Easley, produced notes made by two public information officers showing that they and others were told at a meeting May 29 to destroy e-mail messages. Vanore said a third public information officer, whom he would not identify, also recalled those instructions.

Vanore said, however, that the notes don't mean what they say. He also said the instructions were not followed.

The News & Observer had requested the notes of the periodic meetings of the public information officers.

Questions about the way the Easley administration handles e-mail arose after an N&O series, "Mental Disorder: The Failure of Reform," which ended March 2. The series reported on an ill-conceived and poorly executed reform plan on which the state has wasted at least $400 million.

Two days after the series ended, Easley ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to fire its public information officer, Debbie Crane. Later that day, Crane told The N&O that, to bypass the state's public records law, the governor's press office had given instructions to delete e-mail messages.

Easley's chief legal counsel, Reuben F. Young, and his deputy press secretary, Seth Effron, quickly denied that such instructions had been given.

Young, who has been vacationing with his family in China, could not be reached for comment. Effron has been instructed by Vanore not to comment.

In Young's absence, Vanore was assigned to handle the matter. Vanore was chief deputy attorney general under Easley before Easley was elected governor in 2000 and has continued to work for the governor part-time on a contract basis.

Julia Jarema, public information officer at the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, jotted this note at the meeting in question: "Public records request -- increasing -- careful of email -- delete emails to/from gov. office everyday."

Diana Kees, public information officer at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, recorded this note: "emails -- more & more public records requests (blogs?) be careful w/emails; delete emails to & from gov office every day."

Vanore said he did not know what the notes meant.

"It could be interpreted a number of different ways, and the only way to properly interpret it would be to talk to the individual who took the note," he said. But he said he had instructed all the employees not to talk about that issue because The N&O might file a lawsuit.

Vanore provided The N&O with a box full of e-mail messages to and from Jarema, Kees and Renee Hoffman, the governor's press secretary. Hoffman presided over the meeting May 29; Vanore said he assumed "she was the one that caused Julia and Diana to make the notes."

Vanore said the e-mail messages to and from the governor's press office were "clear and irrefutable proof" that there was no systematic intent to destroy e-mail.

Hugh Stevens, an attorney who represents The N&O, said the notes made by Jarema and Kees confirmed Crane's allegation.

"This sounds to me as though there was a concerted and willful attempt to evade the public records law by deleting the e-mails," he said. "I don't see how you can interpret it any other way."

Crane has been a central figure in the emerging public records story. When she was fired, she told her story to The N&O.

"They ask the second you e-mail them anything, to kill it, then kill it again out of your trash so it doesn't exist," Crane said. "That's what they tell all the public affairs people, that they don't want to create any public records."

When The N&O asked Effron, a spokesman for the governor, to respond to Crane's allegation, Effron said: "This office has never told anybody to destroy any public record." He said Crane was a "dishonest and untruthful" person.

Within a few hours of Crane's disclosure, Stevens, The N&O's attorney, wrote Franklin Freeman, the governor's chief of staff, putting him on notice that the newspaper might take legal action to enforce the state's Public Records Act.

The next day, March 5, Young, Easley's chief legal counsel, responded to Stevens and N&O Executive Editor John Drescher. In effect, he challenged the newspaper to put up or shut up.

Young said he had investigated the matter. "I have concluded that there is absolutely no evidence to support your allegation," Young wrote. "Should you have evidence to the contrary, I respectfully request you immediately provide it to me."

Under state law, 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."

Vanore contends that policies signed by Easley and his appointee, Lisbeth C. Evans, secretary of Cultural Resources, allow destruction of e-mail messages that have "no administrative value" in the opinion of the sender or the receiver.

"What we're doing is consistent with policy," Easley said at a news conference earlier this month.