§ 36.084 DUTY NOT TO WASTE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS RESOURCES.

   Users must not deliberately perform actions that waste electronic communication resources or unfairly monopolize resources to the exclusion of other employees. This includes, but is not limited to, subscribing to list servers, mailing lists or web sites not directly related to the employee’s job responsibilities, spending extensive non-productive time on the internet, and doing large non-work related file downloads or mass mailings. Data streaming of video or audio (listening to radio) is not to be done routinely. Electronic communication resources are limited and employees have a duty to conserve these resources.

(1980 Code, § 36.79) (Res. 01-164, passed 4-19-2001)

§ 36.085 E-MAIL ADDRESSES.

   The county reserves the right to keep an employee’s e-mail address active for a reasonable period of time following an employee’s departure to ensure that important business communications reach the county.

(1980 Code, § 36.80) (Res. 01-164, passed 4-19-2001)

§ 36.086 RECORD RETENTION.

   Generally, e-mail messages are temporary communications which are non-vital and may be discarded routinely. However, depending on the content of the e-mail message, it may be considered a more formal record and should be retained pursuant to a department’s record retention schedule. Therefore, for purposes of this policy, the county employees should treat e-mail messages and other electronic records in the same manner as if these messages had originated on paper. Employees should consult their supervisor or department head for guidance in determining what records are subject to retention.

(1980 Code, § 36.81) (Res. 01-164, passed 4-19-2001)

§ 36.087 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUESTS.

   The county will not accept Freedom of Information Act (F.O.I.A.) requests from the public via the internet. If a citizen e-mails a F.O.I.A. request to an employee, the employee should notify the citizen that these requests must be made in writing to the proper elected official for their respective area.

(1980 Code, § 36.82) (Res. 01-164, passed 4-19-2001)

§ 36.088 VIOLATIONS.

   (A)   Violations of this policy may subject employees to disciplinary action from the removal of privileges up to and including dismissal from employment and, if applicable, any criminal or civil penalties or other legal action.

   (B)   Employees who observe violations of this policy are obligated to report those violations to their department head.

   (C)   The elected county official may authorize individuals, for investigative purposes, to engage in activities otherwise prohibited by this policy.

(1980 Code, § 36.83) (Res. 01-164, passed 4-19-2001)

§ 36.089 POLICY CHANGES.

   The county reserves the right to change this policy at any time with notice. Nothing in this policy is intended or should be construed as an agreement and/or a contract, express or implied.

(1980 Code, § 36.84) (Res. 01-164, passed 4-19-2001)

§ 36.090 DEFINITIONS.

   For the purposes of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.

   ELECTED OFFICIAL. County Executive, Auditor, Recorder, Sheriff, Treasurer, Circuit Clerk, State’s Attorney, Coroner, Chief Judge, Superintendent of Schools.

   ELECTRONIC MAIL (E-MAIL). Electronic mail may include non-interactive communication of text, data, image or voice messages between a sender and designated recipients(s) by systems utilizing telecommunications links. It may also include correspondence transmitted and stored electronically using software facilities called mail, facsimile or messaging systems or voice messages transmitted and stored for later retrieval from a computer system.

   ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE. Proprietary software that changes information from its native state to an unrecognizable coded state which can only be returned to its native state with special software.

   FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP). A program that allows you to transfer data between different computers on a network or between networks.

   INTERNET. A worldwide network of networks, connecting informational networks communicating through a common communications language or protocol.

   INTRANET. An in-house web site that serves the employees of the enterprise. Although intranet pages may link to the internet, an INTRANET is not a site accessed by the general public.

   LIST SERVERS. An e-mail discussion group.

   NEWSGROUPS. The computer discussion groups of USENET.

   USENET. A collection of computer discussion groups that are read all over the world.

   WORLD WIDE WEB. An internet client-server distributed information and retrieval system based upon hypertext transfer protocol (http) that transfers hypertext documents that can contain text, graphics, audio, video and other multimedia file types across a varied array of computer systems.

(1980 Code, § 36.85) (Res. 01-164, passed 4-19-2001)