This file contains archived live captions of the open meeting of the Federal Election Commission held on November 08, 2017. This file is not a transcript of the meeting, and it has not been reviewed for accuracy or approved by the Federal Election Commission.



>> I don't have my documents with me at the moment, but this will convene the open session of Federal Election Commission for November 8, 2017. And we have an item on our agenda, which I don't have handy. I know what it's all about. And that is to consider the adoption of the Capstone officials. We probably need to add something that they submit the documents.

>> I do have a motion here in front of me.

>> Please proceed.

>> This will be helpful.

>> Do we have the vice chair with us?

>> Yes, Commissioner Hunter?

>> COMMISSIONER HUNTER: Yes.

>> I move to suspend the rules on the timely submission of agenda documents in order that the commission may consider the agenda document and 17-17-C with respect to the FEC e-mail management policy.

>> Thank you very much. All in favor?

>> Aye.

>> Opposed? And the vice chair?

>> Aye. Sorry. I had it on mute.

>> Thanks. It passes unanimously. So I'll take into consideration the FEC e-mail management policy. And Mr. Holder, did you get the most recent draft?

>> This was a collaborative effort.

>> Yes. (Laughing) Yes, we do like to say a few things with respect to this and maybe we can hand, everybody who has a final document so hopefully it will be able to be voted on. Please mention what we're doing here and why. I know there was an emergency. We had a member, people are waiting for us to get this done. I'm glad to see we're doing this today. Who would like to comment on this for the record.

>> Like I said, this is in response to NARA. We had to put together an e-mail policy and submit it by December of 2016. We've had this draft, as you know, for quite some time. And like I said, it was a collaborative effort between I.T., the general counsel's office, and the commission secretary to ensure that we could comply with what NARA wanted to do technically. And there were some more monkey wrenches thrown in here because we were in transition from Lotus Note to Office 365. Thankfully that is all behind us now. We have the means to technically with the mechanics involved to comply with the policy. So now we just need your approval to move ahead.

>> Okay, thank you. All I have in front of me is just the latest list of decisions with respect to what will be made permanent or will be made -- whoops. There it is. I think we have no change with respect to the policy. There's a plan to adopt the FEC e-mail management policy pages 1 through 5. And then as an addendum, this list. Does anybody have any discussion with respect to the document entitled FEC e-mail management policy, FEC's capstone approach to managing e-mail records. Commissioner Weintraub?

>> COMMISSIONER WEINTRAUB: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to note the document that has my name on it, the memo from me on this topic was technically submitted late for this agenda. It was, it has been before the commission since May 25th. And actually it looks like, okay. I had originally circulated it on May 25th and it was put on the agenda for formal consideration the meeting March 23rd, 2017. So basically just drawing on the good work that the staff did. And I do want to compliment all the staff who worked on the policy. It seemed to me that we should add some more officials to the capstone category to ensure that we were getting the right category of agency decision makers and people in whose records one would likely, one would be likely to find important agency decision-making documents. So I had suggested that we broaden the list. And there's been some back and forth amongst commissioners about which particular titles should be on that list. And I think we have an agreement. And if it would be helpful, I could just read the list of who will be considered capstone officials whose e-mails will be retained forever. Although I got to tell you they're not really all that exciting reading material. But the capstone officials under the policy that I believe we're about to adopt would be the commissioners, the executive assistants to the commissioners, the general counsel, the deputy general counsel, associate general counsel, staff director, the deputy staff directors. This is listed as sort of deputy staff directors excluding chief information officer and assistant chief information officers, although those are separately listed later, so it does include them. Reviewing officer for the office of administrative review, the chief information officer, deputy chief information officer, the chief financial officers, the director of accounting, the inspector general, the deputy inspector general, and anyone who is acting in any of those positions during the time that they are acting in those positions.

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: Yes, Alec?

>> Just one clarification. This may have been a mistake. But on the list I have it says the deputy CIOs are non-capstone.

>> COMMISSIONER WEINTRAUB: You're right. It was on the list but then it says non-capstone. Deputy CIOs will not be capstone. Thank you for the correction.

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: Does this apply to audio and video or just e-mail? Okay. I had some issue with it and that's why we're here today. We keep going back and forth on some of these issues. But one of the ones that was kind of on my mind is whether or not it was fair to include executive assistants because people come and go and they don't often get completely familiar with how things are done and mistakes are sometimes made. And I thought well maybe some people would rather not have, you know, everything that they've done here in this short period of time memorialized forever. Regardless it would be ten years. But I did get convinced that during that period of time there is a lot of interaction with commissioners. And sometimes it is important to be able to track that if there is an issue that comes up historically. I went along with it and caved to your thinking.

>> COMMISSIONER WEINTRAUB: If I may on that point, Mr. Chairman? The reason I thought it was important to have them included was that frequently convey information for the commissioners. And there is a lot of information that goes through the EAs. And, you know, I'm sympathetic, I know some commissioners were a little bit concerned because sometimes the EAs come in and they're relatively junior, you know, not that long out of law school. It might be a little bit casual in what they say in their e-mails, but this is a prospective policy. So everybody is on notice. And I hope that anybody who comes on board new will get good training on this issue. That their e-mails are gong to be preserved for all time. So they should, you know, observe appropriate decorum.

>> Mr. Chairman?

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: Yes.

>> I just want to clarify Mr. Palmer and Mr. Holder. This policy will currently apply to all e-mails currently in the breast of the commission. We're not going to go deleting past EAs e-mails. They will be archived pursuant to this policy?

COMMISSIONER WEINTRAUB: Fair point. But I still think that the work that the EAs do are very important and they do often convey their commissioners views for them. I do think it's important that they be preserved. The future will be understanding.

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: What about the e-mails for the people who have come and gone? Is that automatically in for the EAs? Or do we still have those?

>> My understanding is the policy is for the position. So if person A was the staff director five years ago, that person would have their e-mails part of the policy.

>> COMMISSIONER WEINTRAUB: Although do we actually have, do we still have e-mails going back in time for everybody in the agency?

>> With the Lotus Notes conversion nothing was deleted.

>> COMMISSIONER WEINTRAUB: Oh, okay. Well I guess it goes back in time as long as there's been e-mail. So the really old staff people are off the hook.

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: (Laughing) It's the new age. Do you have a motion? Mr. Goodman? Oh, excuse me.

>> COMMISSIONER WEINTRAUB: I'm happy to do so. I think the easiest way to do this is I move approval of the FEC e-mail management policy that was submitted to us by our excellent staff on November 9th, 2016, really almost exactly a year ago today as amended by the longer list of capstone officials that I read out at the table. Work?

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: Thank you. Any further discussion. If not, all in favor.

>> Aye.

>> Aye.

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: Opposed? None. The ayes have it. It's unanimous. Thank you very much. Are there any management or administrative matters among or entitled to exemption?

>> There are no such matters.

>> CHAIRMAN WALTHER: Okay. Thank you. The meeting is adjourned. (Ended at 10:58 a.m. Eastern Time)