By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
In an effort to comply with public record laws, Village of Waterford officials are mulling a proposal to switch email providers. But the scenario will come with a price tag.
The Village Board on May 12 voted to transition from a free email service provided by telecommunications company TDS to a government-specific product offered by Internet giant Google.
While TDS’s services come at no cost to the village, Administrative Analyst Barbara Messick said the product is not properly archiving all employees’ emails – a scenario that is necessary under state statutes.
“Public records laws require extended retention of many email messages,” Messick explained.
“Lack of integrated archiving ability in the current system, combined with low storage space,” makes access to older messages very difficult, she explained – which creates a potential liability for the village if a records request is filed that cannot be fulfilled.
While there are a few exceptions in the statutes, Village Attorney Marcy Hasenstab said municipalities across Wisconsin are required to maintain public records for a seven-year period of time.
Messick’s proposal includes upgrading 20 village email accounts to the new Google service. All Village Board members would be part of the upgrade, as would many of the workers at Village Hall.
Google’s government-specific service, which includes a built-in archival service called Vault, would cost $10 per month per user.
The email upgrade is designed to work in tandem with an overhaul of the village’s website during the third quarter of this year.
Village Administrator Rebecca Ewald said plans are in motion to implement an email usage policy so all employees and board members are following proper protocol with public records laws.
“We’ll have it so we meet our statutory requirements,” Ewald said of the policy.
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