Clinton email spat spurs VT policy change

MONTPELIER – About three weeks ago, House Republican Leader Don Turner’s personal email account was hacked.

As Republicans publicized their state budget ideas, Turner was locked out of his inbox, and some of his contacts received messages saying that he was in the Philippines and needed money. Turner found reporters in the Statehouse and handed out documents in person rather than by email.

About 500 unopened messages had been lost when the account was recovered about two days later, Turner said.

Turner uses an AOL email address, as he has for at least 10 years. Messages from his work email account, legislative email account and personal messages all are funneled through AOL.

“Everything’s in this stupid account. That’s why I keep it,” said Turner, R-Milton.

Turner and executive branch officials have been rethinking email strategy after Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account made headlines last month. Clinton, a presumed presidential candidate, was criticized for exclusively using a personal email address and server for government business while she was secretary of state.

A revised Vermont state employee email policy took effect March 20, responding in part to the Clinton news, Administration Secretary Justin Johnson said.

The new policy stipulates that “employees with access to a state email account must use their state email account for state business.”

The ban is not absolute. Employees who want “routinely” to use personal email accounts for state business must receive administration approval, the policy states. Any state-related record is subject to Vermont’s public-records law, even if the communication is in a private account.

The policy most recently had been updated in 2009.

“The policy that we had was all about making sure that people didn’t use the state email system and state phones for personal use,” Johnson said. Now Vermont has to guard against the opposite problem, he noted, for security and public-records reasons.

Johnson said he’s unaware of any specific problem with email use among Vermont state employees.

The Legislature uses a separate email server and separate policies.

Lawmakers are encouraged strongly, but not strictly required, to use their state-provided email accounts for state business. Their official biographies online list legislative, work and personal emails, and they also may communicate through text messages, Facebook or any other format.

Turner, who said he complies with public-records requests by allowing Legislative Council staff to access his AOL account, is not the only lawmaker who corresponds primarily through a personal email account. But he says he’s thinking of making a change to avoid any appearance that he has something to hide.

“With the whole Hillary Clinton thing, it makes me really think about, ‘Should I really be doing that?’ ” Turner said.

Contact April Burbank at 802-660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank.