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County moves to adopt instant-messaging policy; retention set at 90 days
Summary
IT proposed replacing the 10-year-old email/text policy with a new electronic-communications policy that adds instant messaging for internal use, sets a 90-day retention window, and emphasizes departmental oversight and training for public-records compliance.
Cowlitz County information-technology staff presented a proposed electronic-communications policy to replace an email-and-texting policy last revised about 10 years ago. The new policy covers instant messaging (primarily Microsoft Teams) and clarifies retention, records management and acceptable internal use.
Travis (IT) said the county’s licensing already includes messaging platforms and that the policy is a first step to enable instant messaging while preserving public-records obligations. “The capacity limits on the email platform are now significantly higher… PSTs and offline file storage are no longer necessary for archival,” he said; the policy substitutes a managed retention approach for stored PST files.
The proposed retention period for instant messages is 90 days, Travis said, noting the county had seen litigation issues elsewhere with shorter retention periods. Department heads will be responsible for monitoring appropriate use and for ensuring that business-related messages are preserved if they are public records. IT staff said implementation costs are mainly training and administrative work to ensure compliance and public-records fulfillment; the county’s current licensing should cover platform access.
What’s next: Staff plans to work on technical enablement and training if the board moves the policy forward; commissioners asked for clarifications about internal-only use and costs and were told implementation will be internal-first and largely training-driven.
