GOV. BLUNT RELEASES 60,000 PAGES OF E-MAILSGov. Matt Blunt's office released 60,166 pages of e-mail records to the Missouri media Thursday. His office said e-mails from nine inboxes over a two-and-a-half month period filled 22 boxes.
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The Sunshine request took 570 man hours to prepare, $5,000 dollars in printing costs and $15,650 dollars to organize the documents. Plus the office said it was forced to hire an additional staffer to respond to the request.
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"Gov. Blunt has made state government more open and transparent with initiatives like the Missouri Accountability Portal, the creation of a permanent e-mail retention and retrieval system and by releasing more e-mails and documents than any other state official in Missouri history. Now once again, Gov. Blunt is providing more information than any other state official by providing over 60,000 pages of e-mail documents," said Gov. Blunt’s spokeswoman Jessica Robinson. "The governor’s office has been repeatedly accused of actions that never occurred. The documents we are releasing today strengthen our case and will help vindicate the office. The governor’s office is providing these documents to the media free of charge. The cost to Missouri taxpayers is more than $20,000."
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Still, depositions reported by the St. Louis Post Dispatch show that some e-mails were destroyed in November 2007. Reports Jo Mannies, "The testimony leaves it unclear how the e-mails were destroyed, and who ordered the action."
"Gov. Blunt has made state government more open and transparent with initiatives like the Missouri Accountability Portal, the creation of a permanent e-mail retention and retrieval system and by releasing more e-mails and documents than any other state official in Missouri history. Now once again, Gov. Blunt is providing more information than any other state official by providing over 60,000 pages of e-mail documents," said Gov. Blunt’s spokeswoman Jessica Robinson. "The governor’s office has been repeatedly accused of actions that never occurred. The documents we are releasing today strengthen our case and will help vindicate the office. The governor’s office is providing these documents to the media free of charge. The cost to Missouri taxpayers is more than $20,000."
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Still, depositions reported by the St. Louis Post Dispatch show that some e-mails were destroyed in November 2007. Reports Jo Mannies, "The testimony leaves it unclear how the e-mails were destroyed, and who ordered the action."
2 comments:
This is good - this represents openness and transparency from Gov. Blunt’s office – that it is more open than any other state official in Missouri. Reporters and others should challenge other officials to do the same thing and release months worth of their own internal emails. Maybe start with McCaskill, who still refuses to disclose her e-mails. Another valid question - what was in Eckersley's emails?
Amazing how a handful of lawsuits and a tacit resignation of the Governorship turns into "openness and transparency" a year later.
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