Dallas City Hall to purge e-mails after 90 days

Dallas City Hall's new policy to retain electronic communication for only 90 days is disappointing to open-records advocates who realize that it's sometimes a year or more before an issue arises, The Dallas Morning News reported. At that point, there will be no records. City officials say the policy is to help save storage space.

Dallas City Hall soon will begin purging from its computer servers many e-mails 90 days or older - a policy city officials say will save precious storage space but one some open-government advocates fear will hamper transparency.

For years, Dallas has lacked a clear document retention policy governing electronic communications.

The new 90-day e-mail policy will also help the city methodically and responsibly cull what's become a massive amount of information stored on its central computer servers, City Secretary Deborah Watkins said.

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