Question
I sent two emails to the Mayor of my city concerning official business and the mayor deleted them without reading them. Then, an email I sent to the City Manager about 30 days ago, more or less, was deleted unread, as the city’s office email program deletes emails after 30 days.
Is it proper or legal for a city to delete emails without reading them? Seems to me it would just be like throwing away a public document that was mailed in.
Answer
Your inquiry raises two separate issues: (1) whether there is any requirement for the Mayor or City Manager to read emails submitted by members of the public; and (2) whether such emails may be deleted.
As to the first issue, I am not aware of any laws that would mandate that a mayor or city manager actually read an incoming email. As to the second issue, the general rules regarding the destruction of city records are contained in Government Code section 34090 et seq, the text of which can be found at the link below.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/gov/34090-34093.html
There may be other local ordinances that may apply to the retention of emails. One issue in your case is whether a copy of the emails at issue was somehow preserved on the City’s computer system.
I hope this information is helpful.
Asked & Answered posts should not be relied on as legal advice, and FAC makes no guarantees about their completeness or accuracy. All posts carry a date of publication that readers should take note of in assessing their usefulness, given that laws and interpretations of them may change over time. Posts predating Jan. 1, 2023, that discuss the California Public Records Act may contain statute numbers no longer in use. Please see this page for a table showing how the California Public Records Act has been renumbered.