Management Council creates interim subcommittee to review legislator email policy

The Management Council voted to form an interim subcommittee of legislators to review and recommend updates to the Legislature’s email policy after LSO staff reported constituent messages were being diverted to spam or quarantine folders.

Director Matt Obrecht told the council staff had worked with a constituent’s attorney to release some domain names from quarantine and discovered that the standard Microsoft spam filter had been catching many advocacy messages. Obrecht said the current Management Council legislator‑email policy dates to 1997 and “involves technology and legal aspects” that justify a focused interim review.

IT staff warned that lowering filtering thresholds can increase cybersecurity risk. Jamie Schaub of LSO IT explained Microsoft’s filters quarantine bulk or identical messages and that publishing a list of quarantined senders could provide a roadmap to those trying to evade spam controls.

After discussion about transparency and constituent access, the council approved creation of a legislator email policy subcommittee to meet during the interim; the motion authorized three members from each chamber and delegated co‑chair appointments to the presiding officers. The LSO will staff the subcommittee. The council directed the subcommittee to consider cybersecurity risks, statutory and privacy implications of publishing quarantined senders, and options to preserve constituents’ ability to communicate with legislators.

Ending: Council members urged the subcommittee to seek LSO IT and legal guidance and to return recommendations prior to the next FEED/budget cycle.