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County IT moves to permit internal instant messaging; policy would set 90-day retention
Summary
County IT presented a proposed electronic-communications policy update to incorporate instant messaging for internal, transient business messages; the policy sets a 90-day retention period and assigns department heads responsibility for appropriate use and records oversight.
Travis (IT) presented a proposed update to the county's electronic-communications policy to replace an older e-mail-and-text policy and to add instant-messaging provisions for internal business use.
Travis said the county's platforms now have greater capacity and that PST/offline storage is no longer necessary for archival. He described the update as intended to reflect modern communications platforms and to enable authorized instant-messaging tools for transient, internal messages.
"Instant messaging is now very common in business," Travis said. "It's intended to be used exclusively for transient communications." The policy as presented sets retention for instant-message content at 90 days; Travis said that period reflects litigation experience in other jurisdictions and that retention could be adjusted later if the board or retention office directs.
Travis said the primary implementation costs will be staff training and records-process work rather than additional licensing; the county already has licensing to support the platforms in question. He said department heads will be responsible for reviewing and supervising use of the instant-messaging system in the same way they currently oversee e-mail records.
Legal and records staff (David Berger and Bailey from the retention office) participated in drafting the policy, Travis said. Commissioners asked about whether the system would be internal-only; Travis said the initial rollout is intended for internal use and could be extended to named external partners if explicitly authorized.
No formal adoption vote was recorded in the transcript; commissioners asked questions and directed staff to continue with training and implementation planning if the board advances the policy in a future agenda item.
