Gone Fishin' - The First Request

TO:
Katherine Cesinger, Public Information Coordinator, Office of the Governor of Texas

1100 San Jacinto
Room 1200
Austin, Texas 78701

Dear Sir/Madam

I must first state my displeasure that it is still the policy of the Office of the Governor of Texas is to destroy public records after seven days. Please change this obnoxious archive policy (destruction of records after 7 days) to a more reasonable archive strategy. Public records such as e-mails should be archived for at least one year. The retention period should be longer given the simplicity of archiving electronic data.

The following are requests for public records and are made under the Texas Public Information Act (Texas Government Code, Chapter 552)

1. I would like a copy of all the email headers for each governmental e-mail (electronic mail) received by the Office of the Governor of Texas which was received on or after 12:00 am (midnight) Tuesday, August 30, 2011 and received before 12:00 am (midnight) Friday, September 2, 2011.
2. I would like a copy of all the email headers for each governmental e-mail (electronic mail) sent by the Office of the Governor of Texas which was sent on or after 12:00 am (midnight) Tuesday, August 30, 2011 and sent before 12:00 am (midnight) Friday, September 2, 2011.
3. I would like a copy of all the governmental e-mail (electronic mail) received by the Office of the Governor of Texas which was received on or after 12:00 am (midnight) Tuesday, August 30, 2011 and received before 12:00 am (midnight) Friday, September 2, 2011.
4. I would like a copy of all the governmental e-mail (electronic mail) sent by the Office of the Governor of Texas which was sent on or after 12:00 am (midnight) Tuesday, August 30, 2011 and sent before 12:00 am (midnight) Friday, September 2, 2011.

Since, by definition, e-mail is electronic, I would request that all the records produced pursuant to these four PIA requests be provided in electronic form.

I believe none of the records requested in paragraphs 1 or 2 above meet any of the 54 exceptions to the Public Records Act found in TGC 552, so I will be expecting the itemization of cost for these records within 10 days. As for the records covered by paragraphs 3 and 4 see the paragraphs below on Severability, Exemption, and Redaction. If you have any questions you may contact me by telephone at  414-375-5777. If you need to send written correspondence to me, my postal address is:

John Washburn
N128W12795 Highland Road
Germantown, WI 53022

Definitions: In order to narrow these requests and, thus, obviate any need for your office to exempt or redact any records requested under these PIA requests, the terms found in the PIA requests above are defined as follows:

1. e-mail (electronic mail) is defined by RFC 2822/822 and includes any and all attachments.
2. e-mail header is defined as every element of an email covered by RFC 2822/822 with the exception of the message text and email attachments. Email headers include, but are not limited to, the subject line, the list of FROM addresses, the list of TO addresses, the list of CC addresses, and the list of BCC addresses. Email headers do not include email message text. Email headers do not include any files attached to an email record.
3. e-mail in electronic form is defined as comple email data provided in any of the following data formats:
1. Outlook Message Format (MSG),
2. eXtensible Markup Language (XML),
3. Microsoft Outlook Personal Storage Table (PST),
4. Microsoft Outlook Offline Storage Table (OST),
5. Microsoft Outlook Express Electronic Mail (EML),
6. Mailbox Message Format (MBX),
7. Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME),
8. or other, non-proprietary file format commonly used for exchanging or archiving email messages
4. Office of the Governor of Texas is defined as any e-mail with at least one address (From, To, Cc, and Bcc) within a domain tree ending in: governor.state.tx.us.
5. Governmental e-mail is defined as an e-mail where every address (From, To, Cc, and Bcc) of the e-mail header is an address within one or more of the following domain trees:
1. a domain tree ending in: state.tx.us; the State Government of Texas. (e.g. www.oag.state.tx.us; the Office of the Attorney General)
2. a domain tree ending in: XX.us where: XX is the two character postal abbreviation for a state, territory, or protectorate. (e.g. elections.state.wi.us and village.germantown.wi.us from Wisconsin)
3. a domain tree ending with the top level domain of .gov (e.g. eac.gov and csrc.nist.gov from the US Government)
4. a domain tree ending with the top level domain of .mil (e.g. pentagon.osd.mil and usafa.af.mil from the US Government)

Severability: This document creates a four open records requests under the Texas Public Information Act where each covers a multiplicity of records (one record per e-mail header and one per complete email). These 4 requests are severable and are included in this single correspondence for administrative simplicity and the thematic similarity of the records requested. It is understood that any delay in the production of records under one request will not delay or otherwise hinder the production of records responsive to the remaining requests.

Severability: The production of records responsive to a single request is severable as well. It is understood that any delay in the production of some records under a particular request will not delay or otherwise hinder the production of other records responsive to that request.

Exemption from Production: If you contend that the any of the above records, or any of the parts thereof, are exempt from production, you are required hereby to state in writing, and with particularity, the statutory authority for the exemption and the reason or reasons for your conclusion that the record or parts thereof are so exempted. If you are unsure if a record, or any of the part thereof, is exempt from production, please submit the record to the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Texas for an opinion on the correctness of the claimed exemption. Such opinions from the Attorney General satisfy the requirement to state with particularity the statutory authority for the exemption.

Redaction: Redaction itself constitutes a claim for exemption for the portion of the record(s) redacted. As such you are required hereby to state in writing, and with particularity, the statutory authority for any redactions and the reason or reasons for your conclusion that the redacted item is exempt from disclosure.

Promptness: The Texas Public Information Act provides that a response to these PIA requests is due in ten business days. If the requested records cannot be produced in this time frame, then it is expected that the PIA process as illustrated by the PIA FAQs page produced by the Texas Attorney General will be followed.

Entanglement: The Texas Public Information Act provides that that any record subject to a PIA request must be preserved until the PIA request is either fullfiled or any disputes arising from the PIA request have been resolved.

Thank you for your time on this matter.

In Liberty,
John Washburn