Chicago (IL) - The office of Governor Sarah Palin could potentially strike it rich, bettering their economy for years to come, and it isn’t through oil, it’s through the e-mail of the governor. The office of Governor Sarah Palin has been quoting prices as high as $15 million for copies of state e-mails that are being requested by both citizens and news organizations. Regardless what the cost of the e-mails of Palin and her staff, they will not become available to the public until the weeks following the 2008 presidential election, her office told MSNBC.
How could e-mails such as these be so expensive? The Associated Press requested all of the state e-mails that were sent to Todd Palin, the governor’s husband. Palin’s office told the AP that it would cost $15,364,960. This cost included six hours of a programmer’s time assembling the email of one state employee, then two hours for security checks, and then five hours to search the e-mail for whatever topic, word, sender, or recipient the requestor wanted. This equates to $73.87 each hour, and $960.31 for one e-mail account. There are a total of 16,000 full time employees of the state.
The Governor’s office is only allowing email copies to be produced on paper, and will not create digital files for anyone. This is done so that lawyers can remove, block out, and keep personal any information that is exempt or private. That will take more time because many individuals have utilized their government accounts for personal exchange.
The process of going through and removing information is lengthy, thus pushing out the time frame in which the documents will actually be made available to the public. Governor Palin’s office claims that this will probably take until after the election. The Yahoo e-mail accounts will not be collected until October 31, 2008 and searches of those accounts will take an extra two weeks, it is at that point a legal review of the e-mails will begin.
How could e-mails such as these be so expensive? The Associated Press requested all of the state e-mails that were sent to Todd Palin, the governor’s husband. Palin’s office told the AP that it would cost $15,364,960. This cost included six hours of a programmer’s time assembling the email of one state employee, then two hours for security checks, and then five hours to search the e-mail for whatever topic, word, sender, or recipient the requestor wanted. This equates to $73.87 each hour, and $960.31 for one e-mail account. There are a total of 16,000 full time employees of the state.
The Governor’s office is only allowing email copies to be produced on paper, and will not create digital files for anyone. This is done so that lawyers can remove, block out, and keep personal any information that is exempt or private. That will take more time because many individuals have utilized their government accounts for personal exchange.
The process of going through and removing information is lengthy, thus pushing out the time frame in which the documents will actually be made available to the public. Governor Palin’s office claims that this will probably take until after the election. The Yahoo e-mail accounts will not be collected until October 31, 2008 and searches of those accounts will take an extra two weeks, it is at that point a legal review of the e-mails will begin.