CITY ELECTRONIC MAIL RETENTION - Laserfiche WebLink

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Please note [1] that this applies only to the emails contained in the "InBox," "Sent Items," and "Deleted Items" Outlook folders of each City email account holder. [2] While this captures most of the emails it does not capture email that was received and deleted on the same day. It is also very labor intensive to retrieve, requiring around 4 hours of labor for each day of email per user. An electronic backup copy of the contents of the three email folders subject to the City Records Retention Schedule is performed each night. The resulting digital media is then transported to a physically distant high security storage facility. There the copies of the subject emails are retained for the specified two year period. Should there be need to recover saved and stored email, the digital media can be returned to the City for retrieval processing. Note this process is very labor intensive and time consuming. The April 2013 change in the City Records Retention Schedule resulted in a significant increase in the volume of email to be stored and the complexity of recovering selected email based on various criteria. The technology team supporting the City email system was concerned over the length time it was taking to service requests for email searches and recovery in conjunction with Public Record Act Requests. After reviewing different technology options and numerous products, the team found that a specialized self-contained computer appliance would best meet this new requirement. The appliance helps accelerate and simplify responding to Public Record Requests related to electronic mail. It will also reduce the amount of storage on the primary electronic mail computer servers allowing for overall better email performance at lower costs. City Council approved the acquisition of the Email Archiving System and IS-Ops started capturing email that is sent or received, within the City's mail system, in the email archive the first week of Sept 2014. Email in the archive appliance is to be stored for two years and cannot be deleted until after the two year retention period. In Sept of 2016 the City will have two years in the archive as required by Records Retention Schedule [Resolution No. 2013-014]. Please note: SPAM that is blocked before entering the internal email system is not captured in the archive. It is not seen by City staff and therefore should not be relevant to any records request. Information Services —Operations Page 2 of 2 21 January 2015