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In a departure from other court decisions pertaining to electronic public records, the Missouri Court of Appeals declined to sanction city government officials for failing to produce certain email messages requested by a citizens group.

In Concerned Citizens for Crystal City v. City of Crystal City, ---S.W.3d---, 2010 WL 4195827 (Mo. App. E.D.), the Concerned Citizens for Crystal City (“CCCC”) opposed the City’s approval of a redevelopment plan that would turn an abandoned glass factory into an iron smelter. During a protracted discovery battle, CCCC pointed to several instances of discovery violations that it alleged were prejudicial.  The group was particularly incensed by the Mayor’s and the City Clerk’s failure to produce certain emails.  The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision to deny CCCC’s request for sanctions against the City, noting that “the emails at issue were few in number.”  The Court acknowledged that the documents had not been retained either electronically or in hard copy.  The Court accepted the City’s explanation of the missing emails: “[T]hey cannot find them, they do not have them, and nothing was done intentionally, or in an effort to hide them.”

This decision can be contrasted with O’Neill v. City of Shoreline, ---Wn.2d---, ---P.3d---, 2010 WL 3911347, a recent case decided by the Washington Supreme Court.  In O’Neill, the Court found that metadata can be a public record and is subject to disclosure under Washington’s Public Records Act.  The O’Neill decision essentially requires that emails and other electronic documents need to be preserved in their original electronic forms, as paper copies will no longer be sufficient.  Even if only a small number of records is at issue (a single email was central to the O’Neill case), proper preservation is essential.  The Missouri Court of Appeals appears to condone a “best efforts” approach to preservation of electronic records, while the Washington Supreme Court has imposed strict penalties and even proposed searching the hard drive of a government official’s personal computer to locate and obtain an electronic public record in its native form.

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Metadata is the new worry of public disclosure requests. Within the hard drive of any standard computer, a host of metadata is created with each underlying electronic document. Metadata describes the document’s history, tracking and management.

At least in Arizona and Washington that metadata is now also subject to a public disclosure, along with the underlying document itself, when requested. A recent Phoenix Law Review article analyses this proliferating phenomenon. David W. Degnan, Accessing Arizona’s Government: Open Records Requests for Metadata and other Electronically Stored Information after Lake v. Phoenix, 3 Phoenix L. Rev. 69 (2010).

Lake v. Phoenix, 222 Ariz. 527, 218 P.3d 1004 (2009), involved a request by a demoted City of Phoenix police officer, attempting to show through documents’ metadata that comments about his performance were backdated to conceal retaliation for his whistleblowing activities. The Arizona Supreme Court held that this metadata (showing the creation and history of the documents) was a public record and must be disclosed. In Washington, the State Supreme Court arrived at the same conclusion regarding metadata in O’Neill v. City of Shoreline, _____Wn.2d____, ____P.3d____, (2010) WL 3911347 (2010). There, the requestor of the metadata was attempting to find transmission history of the author and recipients of an e-mail. The email was originally sent to the Deputy Mayor’s home computer, and later discussed in a Council meeting. A print copy of the email was provided to the requestor in response to the original request. But, the requestor later sough the metadata for the email that had by then been deleted from the Deputy Mayor’s home computer. The Washington Supreme Court found that the metadata associated with that e-mail was also a public record and that the computer drive on the Deputy Mayor’s home computer should have been searched to find that metadata. The email, and the underlying metadata, had become part of the City’s public records.

The issues with the nature of electronic records and their storage are multiplying. As the Law Review article points out, a study published as early as 2003 suggested that 93% of all communication was then conducted in an electronic medium; and the percentage has only risen. In addition, there are divergent standards for keeping and retrieving electronic records in response to actual or threatened litigation in contrast to public records act requirements. In electronic discovery, there can be a court enforced reasonableness standard. In the public records context there may be no such limitation. But, public records laws in Washington and most other jurisdictions do not require a public agency to produce any new document or summarize documents in response to a public records request. And, a courteous discussion with a requestor may eliminate the need to search for or retrieve metadata associated with any requested documents, as the requestor may have no interest in that level of electronic scrutiny.

The Law Review article concludes with the well recognized caution that in the end there “is the need for state and local government agencies to have electronic record management procedures (and resources) in place to respond quickly and efficiently to future open records requests involving ESI [electronically stored information].” The record management systems for ESI must also include metadata, at least in Arizona and Washington.
 

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In a public records case with significant implications for government management and storage of electronic data, the Washington Supreme Court ruled on October 7, 2010 that metadata, the “hidden information about electronic documents created by software programs,” can be a public record and subject to disclosure under that State’s Public Records Act, Chapter 42.56 RCW. For Washington local governments and public agencies, the Court’s decision in O'Neill v. City Of Shoreline, Case No. 82397-9 (Oct. 7, 2010), puts public records officers and other employees on notice that e-mails and other electronic documents may need to be maintained in their original electronic forms to preserve metadata; paper copies will no longer be sufficient for preservation and may not be responsive to some requests. In a footnote, the Court pointed out that regulations on document retention recently promulgated by the State Archivist now require preservation of e-mail metadata. WAC 434-662-150.

Beyond the issue of metadata as public record, the Court also tangled with the issue of electronic government records on a public employee’s personal computer. The document that gave rise to this case was a single e-mail forwarded to the Deputy Mayor of the City of Shoreline as a blind carbon copy. After the e-mail’s contents were discussed at a City Council meeting, a citizen requested a copy of the e-mail. The City provided a paper copy of the e-mail. Later, the citizen requested metadata for the complete e-mail thread but the Deputy Mayor said she had already deleted the e-mail. But the Court ruled that since the Deputy Mayor had used her personal computer for City business, it is appropriate for the City to search her hard drive in attempt to locate the deleted metadata. If the City refuses to inspect the hard drive, then the Supreme Court indicated the trial court should find a Public Records Act violation. No direction was given as to what would happen if the Deputy Mayor (no longer in office) does not consent to the search.

Although this was a 5-4 decision, the dissent does not question that metadata associated with an electronic document may be a public record. This is not surprising given the liberal construction accorded the broad definition of “public records” and “writings” in RCW 42.56.010. See RCW 42.56.030 (“This chapter shall be liberally construed and its exemptions narrowly construed….”) Instead, the dissent questions a more basic point as to whether materials on a public employee’s private computer, metadata or otherwise, are public at all since they are not “retained by any state or local agency.” The dissent also questions how the majority can condition the City’s compliance with the Public Records Act on “an impermissible search or inspection” because obtaining records from an employee’s personal computer would be “highly offensive to a reasonable person” which would bar the requester from obtaining the record under RCW 42.56.050.

Although the Court’s two factions may disagree on the limits to which an agency must go to obtain public records from a personal computer and whether public work on private computers is public, the clear direction from the entire Court is that metadata falls within the category of materials that can be public records. Local governments will need to evaluate how they manage and store electronic data to ensure they are properly preserving and producing metadata as part of their public records.

The decision in O’Neill on public metadata access is the first such case in Washington and the holding is similar to that of the Arizona Supreme Court in 2009.

Some helpful links on metadata and local government records management:

A good primer on metadata and the law.

Washington State Archives Records Management for Local Governments (including newly adopted retention schedules).

The Sedona Guidelines: Best Practices & Commentary for Managing Information and Records in the Electronic Age (no cost registration required).
 

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Arizona held, in a unanimous decision, that under the state’s public records laws any entity that maintains electronic records must disclose those records along with embedded metadata. Lake v. City of Phoenix et al, No. CV-09-0036. 

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