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Perry's office has stopped deleting e-mails every seven days as a result of Washburn's efforts. Many have said that the policy is bad for transparency, including the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation.[1] Washburn has states he's going to attempt to archive one years worth of the governor's e-mails, but must raise over $62,000 to do it.[2]
However, after the first weeks of requests in 2011, the price for Perry's e-mails have increased dramatically. In 2007 it took 31.5 man hours to fulfill a request for a weeks worth of e-mails. The cost totalled to $568.[3] In 2011, the request stated it would take 109 man hours to complete and would cost a total of $2,304.[4]'
John Washburn, a 45-year-old computer software tester from Wisconsin, was disgusted. He found Governor Perry's policy of deleting nearly all of his emails every seven days to be "obnoxiously short," and was not about to stand for it.[5]
In response to the policy, Washburn developed a computer program that requests all emails sent to and from the Governor's office every four days. The first batch yielded over 8,000 emails, which Washburn promptly put up online.
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Texas on Sunshine Review
