The true cost of Palin's transparent government

happygeek 0 459 Views

Sarah Palin is always keen to talk about open and transparent government, indeed it was one of the main focal points of her campaign when she ran for the office of Governor in Alaska. Of course, she continues to talk the transparency talk now that the campaign has ramped up a notch or three to Presidential level. But some are asking with increasing urgency if Palin can actually walk the walk.

Especially considering the whole that has raged ever since the . With emails coming from with subjects such as 'Court of Appeals Nominations' amongst those revealed, it is hardly surprising that questions are being asked as to just how open Palin is being.

Now a state judge in Alaska has ordered Palin to ensure that the contents of that account are preserved for the public record. And, of course, Palin is only too happy to oblige.

So, how much might it cost if you wanted to exercise your right to access an email or two? The answer is more than you would expect. According to the Office of the Alaska Governor, the cost will be $960.31 to search an employee's email account, plus the 10 cents for every sheet of paper used as the office cannot apparently provide copies of electronic mail, er, electronically.

The upon it taking six hours for a programmer, charged at $73.87 per hour, to compile the email for a single employee. Oh, plus an additional two hours for security checks. Not forgetting the other five hours to do a keyword search for the person requesting the documents.

Do they not have some kind of enterprise search system in place? Most organizations can rustle up an email history of an employee in about 5 minutes flat and that would include printing it out and licking the stamp for the envelope. Of course, that is nonsense. Most organizations would simply email the archive to the person requesting it, suitably encrypted of course, so knocking another minute or two off the total time.

In another odd twist of events, Palin's office would appear to be unable to honor any such public record email requests until November 17th which just happens to be well after the nation votes in the Presidential election.

Funny that...

Dani AI

Generated

As observed, the thread raises two distinct problems that explain apparently large estimates for producing a public official’s email: the legal rules that govern public‑records requests, and the technical work needed to find, pull and make electronic mail usable for release. Alaska’s public‑records regime (the APRA) sets response deadlines, allows agencies to recover certain search/production costs, and also describes narrow fee‑relief rules for requests that clearly advance public understanding. (Alaska Dept. of Law — APRA).

The technical side is often the bigger time sink. Searching multiple mailboxes and archives, exporting messages with usable metadata, and preparing records for disclosure (including consulting subject matter experts and redacting exempt material) can be labor‑intensive. Federal guidance and archives practice make the same point: good records management (archive captures, searchable exports, agreed formats) dramatically cuts retrieval time, and requesters may specify a preferred electronic format to reduce conversion work. (NARA — Email Management) (FOIA.gov — FAQ).

Practical steps that tend to reduce cost and delay:

  • make the request narrowly focused (named custodian(s), precise date range, limited keywords or topics);
  • ask explicitly for searchable electronic delivery (EML/PST, or PDF/A with embedded text) and for phased production (small prioritized batch first);
  • request an itemized fee estimate and the statutory basis for any charge; ask for fee relief by stating how the disclosure will significantly contribute to public understanding.

Sample phrasing (adapt as needed):

Public records request for emails of [Name], [Office], dates [YYYY-MM-DD] to [YYYY-MM-DD].
Please provide responsive emails in searchable electronic form (EML/PST or searchable PDF). 
Provide an itemized fee estimate before commencing chargeable work and prioritized production for [subset].

As ’s background implies, better archiving reduces these frictions; as noted, statutes permit reasonable fees — the practical path is a tight, format‑specific request and asking for a written, itemized estimate (APRA explains fee/appeal rules). (Alaska Dept. of Law — APRA).

Member Avatar for Techwriter10
Techwriter10 42 Practically a Posting Shark

Yea, funny how that works. I write about content management and related issues including email archiving for Fierce Content Management and funnily enough my Editor's Corner this past week was about email archiving. Turns out a study has found that many companies don't understand the difference between email archiving and backup even though they are legally obligated under eDiscovery rules in the US to have an archiving plan in place.

It may truly be that Palin's office is just incompetent, or it may be that they are trying to make it as difficult as possible. I wonder if the transparent governor of Alaska supports a Freedom of Information Act, which if I'm not mistaken would require the government to give those public emails to anyone who made an official request at no cost to the requestor.

You can read my Ed. Corner here:

Member Avatar for infotechland
infotechland 0 Light Poster

No, if you use FOIA they can charge you reasonable fees for materials and manpower.

I'm tired of all this election crap, I can't wait for it to be over. Everyone is always bashing palin. So what she used a personal email account for some business. I have a government email address, but I use my personal one a lot of times. This is like obama's camp saying palin doesn't have any federal government experience and therefor should not be VP, but he neglects the face that he has only spent around 3 months of his career as a Senator NOT campaigning.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.

Edit Preview