Documents in electronic mail format are records as defined by the Ohio Revised Code when their content relates to the business of the office. Email is to be treated in the same fashion as records in other formats and should follow the same retention schedules.
(a) Records in private email accounts used to conduct public business are subject to disclosure and all employees or representatives of this office are instructed to retain their emails that relate to public business and to copy them to their business email accounts and/or to the officer's records custodian.
(b) The records clerk or custodian is to treat the emails from private accounts as records of the public office, filing them in the appropriate way, retaining them per established schedules and making them available for inspection and copying in accordance with the public record laws of the State of Ohio.
(Ord. 2021-38. Passed 7-7-21.)