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“Why can't every agency search its own email, and whose job is it to make sure each one can answer a public records request for it?”

November 2, 2026, 7:53 PMTo State Chief Information Officer

He asks the State Chief Information Officer three questions about agency email searches, including, “Why can't every agency search its own email, and whose job is it to make sure each one can answer a public records request for it?”

Document
01M6FRN6ARWG9WQNAMGE62QN58
Date
November 2, 2026, 7:53 PM PT
To
State Chief Information Officer
From
Robert Samuel White
Subject
Which state agencies can search their own email?

State Chief Information Officer:

Since October 27, 2026, I have asked every state agency in Oregon for the same thing: its email with two Oregon State Police addresses, containing any of five terms, from January 1, 2023.1 Each agency has to search its own email to answer. Their answers show that some can and some cannot.

Some searched it themselves. The Department of State Lands ran “an eDiscovery search via Microsoft Purview.”2 At the Department of Consumer and Business Services, “The DCBS Windows Administrator did a comprehensive search.”3 The Department of Revenue’s Senior Network Engineer ran it the day after the request.4 The Employment Department “had our IT team search all OED email inboxes.”5

Others cannot, or will not without paying. The Oregon Youth Authority wrote that it “does not have the ability to search records or information by email addresses.”6 The Department of Forestry “requested a query of ODF’s emails within the state system,” and wrote that “These searches typically take 7-10 days to complete.”7 The Board of Accountancy wrote that a formal search “would require the resources of our IT partner (my agency is too small to have its own IT department).”8 The Board of Tax Practitioners did not ask for one: “The other reason we are not requesting these from the IT department is the fee the Board would need to pay for these records.”9

Since November 21, 2024, these agencies’ email has been on the enterprise Microsoft 365 system your office runs.10 I have three questions.

  1. Which agencies can search their own email, and which have to ask your office to do it?
  2. What does it cost an agency to ask, and how is it billed?
  3. Why can't every agency search its own email, and whose job is it to make sure each one can answer a public records request for it?

My records request to the Department of Administrative Services of October 27, 2026, R001047-102726, asks for the service catalog entry, the rate, and the count of searches your office has run for agencies.11 It is acknowledged and not yet answered. These questions are what underlie that request, and they are what I want to know. I did not think to ask directly until now. I hope you'll indulge me.

I will publish any answer you provide, in the spirit of sharing public information.

Respectfully,
Robert Samuel White
This document01M6FRN6ARWG9WQNAMGE62QN58