E-mail was invented in 1971. Spam messages followed soon enough. But this mode of communication became ubiquitous just a decade and a half ago. Understandably, there's still confusion in North Carolina as to how e-mails to and from public officials ought to be handled under public records laws.

A committee formed by Governor Easley is leaning in the direction of letting state employees decide when e-mail meets criteria requiring it to be saved. Although in many cases the judgment would seem to be obvious, it also would create leeway under which communications that might have significance as a matter of public interest could be deleted.

Panel members, and government employees, understandably worry that the volume of daily spam makes it unwieldy to save everything that arrives in e-mail in-boxes. That said, the state can afford the modest investment that would be necessary to save e-mails in some manner.

Employees could be allowed to delete seemingly innocuous notes to keep their in-boxes manageable. But those trashed e-mails, as well as ones considered of more consequence, need to be saved somewhere for some length of time. The law clearly says that communications made or received by public employees are public information. And what may seem inconsequential to an employee today may turn out to have significance later.

Computer technology changes constantly, so it's possible that archiving millions of messages may become a relatively simple proposition. But even today, it shouldn't be that difficult. Better to err on the side of caution and make sure these messages are recoverable.

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