Question
As far as the CPRA is concerned, I filed for any emails concerning media policy and the district told me that emails are only archived for four years. Is that legal? Is there a statute of limitations on how far back public agencies must keep emails on file?
Answer
The Public Records Act is not a records retention act, and is therefore silent on this front.
There are several other statutes that govern various agencies’ duty to retain records, such as Government Code § 12275, which governs the destruction of records retained by state agencies (a “record shall not be destroyed or otherwise disposed of by an agency of the state, unless it is determined by the Secretary of State that the record has no further administrative, legal, or fiscal value and the Secretary of State has determined that the record is inappropriate for preservation in the State Archives”), and Government Code §§ 34090-34095, which governs retention of records in a city or county’s possession.
However, emails relating to that policy may not necessarily also fall into this category. The regulations contain two other “classes” of records, including a “Class 3-Disposable” category, which is basically a record that is not Class 1 or Class 2.
Even if the emails fell within this “disposable” category of records, the regulations state that such records may be destroyed three years after their creation. 5 CCR § 59026(a).
Bryan Cave LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to FAC hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation.
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.