Doug

Your posting raises an interesting public policy issue.  In our current governance structure we differentiate between "political" documentation and documentation created by elected officials (in the executive branch) within the scope of their employment.  This distinction, in my opinion is largely artificial and does not make a lot of sense.  A president and a governor is both an elected official and a politician and they frequently perform both roles simultaneously. In dealing with this sometimes politicians will go into the hall way or the bathroom and speak on their cell phone so no one can say they are using public facilities for political purposes.  Is this the governing behavior that we wish to encourage.

On the other hand crafting government initiatives to meet needs/expectations of supporters is considered acceptable.

Perhaps a better solution to this issue would be to deem all documentation created by elected officials to be subject to public access regardless of whether one deemed it political, governmental or personal.  Additionally it may be useful to deem financial contributors over a certain dollar value (say $10,000 annually) and they too could be required to respond to freedom of information requests.

Of course one of the side benefits of such a public policy is that it would certainly improve employment opportunities for many of the readers of this list.

David Gaynon

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Allen, Doug
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 10:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: RAINdrop: Sarah Palin's E-Mail Secrecy an Open Secret In Alaska...Anchorage Daily

I would be just as curious about access to, or lack thereof, for all candidates....... just so the topic is covered in a fair and balanced manner.... ;-) Do we have access to the email of Senators? Is that secret?

Douglas P. Allen, CRM, CDIA+

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