State Auditor Andrea Lea has a new email policy, and it looks pretty straightforward.
All state business handled by the auditor’s office employees through email “should only be conducted on the employee’s AOS email account,” according to the policy, which was recently released to Whispers.
The email policy change came after Arkansas Business and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette were given text messages to and from Lea that disproved her claim that she rarely used her private email account for state business.
Texts between Lea and her former chief deputy, George Franks, show that she repeatedly instructed him to use his private account to send emails about official state business to her private email address. And these instructions continued until at least June 30 — months after she took office in January 2015.
The use of private emails for state business came to light last month when Arkansas Business reported that Lea gave a no-bid contract to inexperienced, overpriced lawyers. Two emails detailing proposals from law firms were released by Lea’s office only after Arkansas Business asked specifically for notes that Franks said he was told to send to Lea’s private email account.
Lea had said at that time that she rarely used her private email account for state business.
“Last [month] I made a statement I believed was accurate but based on the texts, it appears I misspoke,” Lea said in an email statement on March 3. “Moving forward, I am implementing a new communication policy for the office to avoid any appearance of impropriety.”
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