Civil Beat reported Feb. 20 that emails to the governor’s office and administration departments auto-delete after 60 days unless specifically archived.

It was confirmed for us by the Office of Information Management & Technology.

What we weren’t able to find out was when the records retention policy had been last updated, or how many departments use an email-deleting software called Lotus Notes.

Now we’ve got an update.

Two weeks after emailing questions to the state’s Department of Accounting and General Services — and 10 days after our article ran — we heard back.

Marc Alexander

Why do we care about email retention policies?

Because questions have been raised about when Gov. Neil Abercrombie first found out that people were concerned over his appointment of Marc Alexander as the state’s homeless coordinator and whether Alexander, a priest, had had an inappropriate sexual relationship when he was vicar general of the Honolulu Catholic Diocese.

The governor’s office says that the state received only 15 emails regarding the controversial appointment of Alexander at the time of his appointment in January 2011, and none suggested anything about the relationship.

Since then, former Abercrombie staffers have said there were many more emails at the time, and that they recalled someone raising the issue of his relationship with the unnamed woman.

Civil Beat has asked to see all emails at the time of Alexander’s appointment. That’s why we contacted DAGS.

Most Departments Use Lotus Notes

DAGS Comptroller Dean Seki confirms that Lotus Notes does indeed auto-delete email after 60 days.

He adds that DAGS does not archive emails, nor does it send them to the State Archives.

The policy, implemented in 2002 in the last year of the Cayetano Administration, was updated in 2004 under the Lingle Administration. The only change was to extend the email retention period from 30 days to 60 days.

In spite of its unpopularity, meanwhile, Seki says Lotus Notes is still widely used.

“All State Executive Branch agencies except the Department of Health, Department of Defense, and the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center of the Department of the Attorney General’s office use Lotus Notes for email,” he wrote.

Seki said the first installation of Lotus Notes was in 2002.

“Most of the departments and agencies have upgraded or are in the process of upgrading to the latest software version,” he explained.

Interestingly, Seki sent his response to Civil Beat via email — but as an attached PDF.

May it live forever … but not in the State Archives.