By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Missouri Governor Matt Blunt said Thursday that he's ordering the creation of a permanent retention system for e-mails.
Blunt says he wants to eliminate any confusion about which messages to save.
The move comes two months after Blunt staff attorney Scott Eckersley was fired.
Officials say they terminated Eckersley because of poor performance. But Eckersley says he was sacked because his legal advice was at odds with the administration's policy of deleting internal office e-mails.
The administration has now filed a complaint with the Missouri Bar Association against Eckersley.
In a news release Thursday, Blunt said the new policy will "prevent what has happened in Attorney General Nixon's office, where the spokesperson said that e-mails are routinely deleted."
Nixon is a Democrat who is challenging Blunt in next year's governor's race.