The Peoples’ Records

I a decision last week from the Ohio Supreme Court in favor of the Toledo Blade, Justice Paul Pfeifer held that deleted emails are a public record. He rejected the Seneca County Commissioners contention that the County could be overwhelmed by public records requests for deleted material. “If anything,” Justice Pfeifer wrote, “our holding ensures that public officials will be more cognizant of their duties … and less likely to delete work-related public office e-mails. … Otherwise, without proper preservation of public records, ‘the right of access to government records is a hollow one.’” Pfiefer further held that individual county commissioners could not be trusted to determine which emails to save or delete. That would create “unreviewable authority to delete work-related e-mails [which is] is unreasonable because it would authorize the unfettered destruction of public records.” The opinion further held that open records laws exist “to reinforce the understanding that open access to government papers is an integral entitlement of the people, to be preserved with vigilance and vigor.”