As currently drafted AB 1184 (Gloria) will require all public agencies to retain ALL transmitted emails for two-years. To avoid mandate costs that might have been associated with the new retention requirements the bill was placed in the California Public Records Act (CPRA). However, this bill does not make any new disclosure requirements in the CPRA of those emails or provide any additional exemptions. Meaning, if the email would have been considered a public record prior to this legislation, it is still a public record, and those records that aren't public records, such as an out of office email, would still not be a public record that would be required to be disclosed under the CPRA. This bill, as currently drafted, does nothing other than require the storage of all emails for two-years.
However, yesterday afternoon while meeting with Assemblyman Gloria's staff I was informed that they are planning significant amendments to narrow the bill. They are working with the California News Publishers Association to amend the bill to provide a uniform email retention policy to apply only to emails that would be considered a public record and hope to clarify within AB 1184 what types of emails constitute a public record. The office indicated that they anticipate several rounds of amendments will be required to sufficiently narrow the bill and will be seeking CSDA's feedback to ensure the bill is workable and not overly broad.
CSDA is currently opposed to AB 1184 and will be reaching out to our Expert Feedback Teams for input following the anticipated amendments. Please feel free to contact CSDA's Senior Legislative Representative, Dillon Gibbons, at dillong@csda.net should you have any questions about the bill.