A panel reviewing state e-mail policies agreed in principle Wednesday to recommend that government agency heads be required to make sure that employees who handle public records understand which ones must be preserved.

Gov. Mike Easley's E-mail Records Review Panel is scheduled to vote next week on the proposal, which includes providing a 40-minute computerized tutorial and quiz on the state's Public Records Law to any state or local government employees who need or want to know it.

"There are probably few more important subjects in the long run than public records," said Franklin Freeman, Easley's Senior Assistant for Governmental Affairs. "That's how we preserve our history. This may be the time to change it."

Easley formed the committee in response to recent criticism over his administration's handling of e-mails concerning public matters. Under the administration's policy, each employee can decide which e-mails to delete and which to save because they have lasting administrative value.

"We need to frame it so that you're expected to do the public's business openly and transparently," said panel member Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC-Chapel Hill's Program on Public Life, and a former N&O editor. "We still have to struggle with when do you delete, and what do you delete."

The group discussed but reached no decision on which of several electronic-archiving policies to recommend. It's scheduled to take that up again at its May 8 meeting.

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