Commonwealth's Attorney explains separate email domain, CJIS-compliant hosting and modest recurring costs

Commonwealth's Attorney Nicole told the board her office requested level funding with an increase provided by the state compensation board that is intended to address understaffing. She explained the office maintains a separate email domain and long-standing email arrangement to meet prosecutorial confidentiality and Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) security guidelines. "The email services that we are contracting for do meet the CJIS...guidelines for prosecuting offices," Nicole said, noting the arrangement is intended to protect attorney-client privileged material and criminal investigative files.

Nicole and her office manager (Abram McConnell) described the hosting arrangement as redundant and located on multiple remote servers in the United States, and they said they use a government-focused Google service for mail hosting. The attorney estimated the recurring cost of email services at about $500-$600 per year and domain maintenance at roughly $12-$20 annually; she asked the board to consider those modest recurring costs while acknowledging the county does not currently host the prosecutor's email because of statutory and ethical obligations.