Records wiped from speaker's office (Craddick pulls a Rove)

[sonias]

AAS 5/04/09
AP EXCLUSIVE: Records wiped from speaker's office
By JAY ROOT
Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — Before the House voted Speaker Tom Craddick out of his powerful job, state officials wiped his computers clean and deleted scores of electronic files, raising concerns that important public records may have been destroyed.

Files on one shared computer network drive were saved, but unless Craddick specifically requested them, computer hard drives and electronic records associated with individual employees were deleted, officials said.

Craddick left the speaker's office on Jan. 13, returning to the state House as a rank-and-file member without a vast staff and without the sweeping power the presiding officer wields.

The computers were removed from the speaker's office to be wiped clean at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12, said Anne Billingsley, spokeswoman for the Texas Legislative Council. Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, was sworn in as speaker at noon the following day.

(snip)
First Amendment attorney Joe Larsen, board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said he was concerned important data may never be retrieved. Unless officials specifically culled through the files to ensure government records were retained, "then the odds that public information was destroyed are very high."

What's Craddick got to hide? Oh yeah all that stuff. :eyes:


Sonia

[tbyg52]

1. And people get away with this garbage!

This should be investigated and charges filed. Probably nothing at all will happen.

[MagickMuffin]

2. Well, there is a "paper trail"

According to the articel:rolleye: They have been shipped off to storage. But of course they probably have shredded what they didn't want us to see.

"The legislator makes all decisions regarding their files," the council said in an unsigned news release on the stationery of council director Milton Rister. "The council simply follows its operating procedures in reformatting the computers for use by other or new legislators."

But state Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, said Rister should resign over the incident.

"I'm very concerned about records being destroyed the day before the election of a new speaker without anyone in the Legislature in charge of stopping it or preventing it," Merritt said. "Milton Rister needs to resign."

Council spokeswoman Araminta Everton declined to comment on Merritt's request.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, said he was filing legislation to prevent such destruction in the future. He said his bill was designed to "preserve the public's right to know about legislative information when a legislator leaves office."

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, also weighed in on the flap by filing a bill that would require the head of the Legislative Council to be a licensed attorney. Rister, a longtime Republican activist, is not on file with the Texas Bar as a lawyer. At least one previous council director, Bob Kelly, was not an attorney.

:woohoo: a Shout out to Rep. Marc Veasey (local hero) and Rep. Pete Gallego:applause:

[sonias]

3. I like Veasey and Gallego too

You can imagine what kind of crap Craddick had on his computer about re-districting.

Oh I totally agree with you, the shredders were working overtime. Perry pulls the same kind of crap all the time deleting his old e-mail. How much does a hard drive cost these days? What a bunch of bullcrap that they need to make room on their machines.

They just want to hide their crimes - plain and simple.

:grr:

Sonia

[sonias]

4. Travis County district attorney to review missing papers’ case

AAS Postcards from the Lege blog 3/27/09
Travis County district attorney to review missing papers’ case

Travis County authorities intend to review the possible destruction of documents believed to have vanished from the Texas House parliamentarian’s office after the 2007 legislative session.

Gregg Cox, director of the Public Integrity Unit in the Travis County District Attorney’s office, told me Thursday he’d met with a representative from the Texas Rangers, an arm of the Texas Department of Public Safety which has looked into the matter at the request of a House committee.

Cox said he expects to field information for his review within a week. Uncertain, Cox said, is whether he launches his own investigation into possible tampering with government records.

In keeping with the state’s two-year statute of limitations, a misdemeanor infraction would need to be determined by May. If a felony charge appears appropriate, Cox said, authorities would have another year to act.

:eyes:

Sonia