A legislative official declined Friday to release e-mail messages and other electronic records from the computer of a former House member who resigned this week after an unspecified personnel allegation was made against him.

George Hall, the legislature's chief administrative officer, cited a legislative "policy statement" that says it's up to the lawmaker whether to release such records.

"Because legislative immunity may shield some of the documents received or made by a member of the General Assembly and contained in the General Assembly's computer system, the member shall be the custodian of documents that are made or received by the member or the personnel in the member's office ... " the memo reads.

The News & Observer requested the electronic records after Rep. David Almond, a Stanly County Republican, abruptly resigned from the legislature. He left shortly after closed-door meetings among lawmakers to discuss a complaint made against him.

Almond, who was in his second term, has declined to be interviewed. But he has said in a statement that he would defend himself against the charges. Legislative leaders have declined to say what the complaint was, calling it a personnel matter.

State law allows public officials to keep certain personnel issues private, though an exception can be made when the matter affects the integrity of the agency in question.

The policy statement issued by the Legislative Services Commission flies in the face of state public records law, said John Bussian, a lawyer with the N.C. Press Association. The N&O is an association member.

"We know from past experience that policy statements or other statements by government administrators can't change the requirement of the public records law," Bussian said. "And so the rule continues to be any record made by a government agency is a public record, unless it's otherwise specifically exempted."

Legislative e-mail messages and other correspondence played an important role in explaining the legislative and campaign activities of former House Speaker Jim Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat who was sentenced this week to more than five years in prison on a federal public corruption charge. Such records, for example, showed that Black's former unpaid political director, Meredith Norris, had been secretly lobbying for lottery vendor Scientific Games, and that another lobbyist for the company had submitted favorable language that ended up in the lottery law.

A spokesman for Black's successor, House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, said he is reviewing the public records law to see if there would be an issue in releasing some or all of Almond's computer files.

House Minority Leader Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, said most of Almond's files should be kept private. The only exception he was aware of, he said, was correspondence pertaining to redistricting.

"If I can't do drafts of things, and if constituents write me and I write them back and that's a public record, then nobody's going to send any e-mail or any letters," Stam said.