By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Saving every email sent and received by government workers would cost the state of Missouri a lot of money, according to one estimate.
Governor Matt Blunt's chief information director, Dan Ross, says the equipment needed to archive state emails would cost about $1 million, and maintaining the system could cost up to $250,000 per year.
But the governor indicates it may be a necessary expense.
"Right now it's up to individual state employees to determine what would be saved and what would not be saved, and the only way to retain every email is to retain every email," Blunt said.
Blunt directed his staff to come up with a permanent email retention system, after his administration was criticized for deleting some emails.
"I'll make a recommendation and leave it to the General Assembly to determine if that's a wise allocation of resources," Blunt said.
A former staff member claims he was fired for telling the Blunt administration the deletions could violate the state's Sunshine law.
Blunt's office says, though, that Scott Eckersley was fired for other reasons, including conducting personal business on state time.