Documents in electronic mail format are records as defined by the Ohio Revised Code when their content relates to the business of the Village. E-mail is to be treated in the same fashion as records in other formats and should follow the same retention schedules.
(a) Records used to conduct public business that are stored in private e-mail accounts are subject to disclosure, and all employees of the Village are instructed to retain their e-mails that relate to public business (see Section 109.01 Public Records) and to copy them to their business e-mail accounts and/or to the Village’s records custodian.
(b) The Village’s records custodian is to treat the e-mails from private accounts as records of the Village, filing them in the appropriate way, retaining them per established schedules and making them available for inspection and copying in accordance with the Public Records Act.
(Ord. 2007-12-116. Passed 12-19-07.)