Gov. Cuomo leaves no email trail
ALBANY - When Gov. Andrew Cuomo communicates, he leaves no trace.
Cuomo, who first took office in 2011, has long expressed his dislike for email, the communication tool of choice for many politicos and government officials, along with much of the private sector.
State records — or lack thereof — show how far that distaste goes.
A request under the state Freedom of Information Law for any emails sent or received by Cuomo since his first day in office turned up zero messages from 2011 through early February 2016.
Nor did Cuomo’s office turn over any messages sent through BlackBerry Messenger, a hard-to-trace messenging service widely reported to be a communication tool favored by the Democratic governor.
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Cuomo doesn’t have a state email account, according to his office. And his BlackBerry, which he has been known to use to communicate with his staff and confidants, isn’t owned by the state.
“Please be advised that Governor Cuomo does not have a state email account or a state issued Blackberry,” Mongthu Zago, Cuomo’s FOIL counsel, wrote in a letter Wednesday to Gannett’s Albany Bureau. “Executive Chamber staff do not use personal email accounts to conduct state business.”
No state law or rule requires the governor to communicate via email or even set up a state account.
But by eschewing email altogether, Cuomo avoids leaving an electronic paper trail that could shed light on his decision-making process or — in the case of an issue that winds up in court — be subject to subpoena.
“Chief executives run their institutions using email because it is super-duper efficient,” said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a government-transparency group that has been critical of the Cuomo administration’s email policies. “Is it plausible that he just has some dislike of it as an inappropriate tool? Not really.”
Freedom of information
Sunday starts Sunshine Week, a national campaign each March to highlight open-record laws at all levels of government. The effort, spurred by newspapers across the country pushing for better Freedom of Information laws and enforcement, is now in its 11th year.
New York’s Freedom of Information Law allows the public to request emails sent to or received by public officials so long as they pertain to public business, with certain restrictions. Emails between members of Cuomo’s staff, for example, do not have to be disclosed.
Twice in the past year, Gannett’s Albany Bureau requested all emails sent to or received by Cuomo on an official state email account, as well as any state-related emails sent on a personal account.
The bureau also requested any state-related BlackBerry Messenger messages sent or received by Cuomo.
The requests turned up nothing.
“The New York State Executive Chamber has conducted a diligent search for the records you request and does not possess records responsive to your request,” Sherry Hwang, then Cuomo’s FOIL counsel, wrote in an April 2015 letter.
“Please be advised that the New York State Executive Chamber has conducted a diligent search but does not possess records responsive to your request,” Zago wrote Wednesday.
In response to the second request, Zago went further, stating that Cuomo does not have a state email account or a state-owned BlackBerry.
According to his office, Cuomo isn’t alone.
Dating back to 2001, no New York governor has ever had a state email account or a state-issued smartphone, according to Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. That’s not to say prior governors didn’t use email: Messages from then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer unearthed during a 2007 investigation into the use of State Police resources were from a private account, for example.
Azzopardi said Cuomo’s private BlackBerry is subject to the same disclosure requirements as email or any other form of communication. That means messages with his staff are not available to the public, nor are messages that do not pertain to state business or rise to the level of a state record.
“The same disclosure and record retention requirements apply to all forms of communication for the governor’s smartphone regarding state business, as it would with any other Executive Branch employee,” Azzopardi said. “As we have said many times, the governor doesn’t use email – personally or professionally.”
Telephone guy
Cuomo, the former state attorney general, hasn’t shied away from his lack of emailing, hinting last year at his preferred method of communication: the telephone.
The governor is widely known to be a frequent telephone user.
“I don’t want to say that I’m a sort of old-fashioned, telephone guy, but a little bit I am,” Cuomo told reporters in March 2015.
Cuomo said he is “making progress” when it comes to his technological habits. “But I am not a big email guy, no,” he said at the time.
Government-reform advocates say Cuomo’s communication habits raise concerns, particularly when it comes to historic preservation. Phone calls, of course, do not leave a paper trail.
Governors have traditionally submitted the papers, memos and documents they accumulate over their time in office to be archived following their departure. Generally speaking, that would include emails.
In 2012, Cuomo adopted a retention policy for records coming out of his office. The policy makes clear that BlackBerry Messenger messages are treated the same way as emails and texts: They are to be retained if they meet certain criteria pertaining to state business.
Other states
Cuomo is not alone among governors with a distaste for email.
Last month, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner explained to reporters why their open-records requests for his emails came up empty: He doesn’t use email. “None whatsoever,” he said.
“Email causes all kinds of trouble, as you’ve seen,” Rauner said, according to NPR Illinois. “And people send out spams, send emails, copy, forward — nothing good comes from that.”
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley also has never set up a state email account, according to the Alabama Media Group. And last year, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback faced criticism for using a private email address to communicate with his staff, according to the Kansas City Star.
The New York State Archives declined to discuss Cuomo’s email policy. Governors are free to submit their end-of-term papers to whatever archiving facility they choose.
A call to the Archives was redirected to the state Education Department’s communications department. The Archives fall under the state Office of Cultural Education, which is part of the Education Department.
Antonia Valentine, a spokeswoman for the Office of Cultural Education, declined to make anyone from the Archives available for an interview, though she said the Archives do not currently have any electronic messages from any governors.
She directed a reporter to the governor’s press representatives despite the Archives being separate from Cuomo’s office.
Email troubles
Cuomo doesn’t have to look far to see other officials who have run into trouble with email.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, has faced continuing questions about her use of a personal email address rather than a federal government account during her time as secretary of state.
Clinton’s emails were stored on a server at her home in Chappaqua, Westchester County, not far from the home Cuomo shares with partner Sandra Lee in New Castle.
The state’s Freedom of Information Law largely carves out the state Legislature, preventing the public from requesting to review emails of state lawmakers.
But emails played a key role in the criminal case against former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, who was convicted on fraud and extortion charges last year.
Messages sent between Skelos and his son played a key role in the conviction, showing the two often communicated about an environmental firm that was employing his son while securing a lucrative Nassau County contract.
FOIL expansion
Cuomo, meanwhile, is pushing for a series of changes meant to bolster the Freedom of Information Law, including one measure that would bring the Legislature into the fold.
The governor’s bill would ensure state lawmakers are subject to the same levels of disclosure as other state and local officials.
“The Freedom of Information Law is a central component of public integrity and disclosure yet the legislature has exempted themselves,” Cuomo said during his State of the State address in January. “It is indefensible, especially in today’s context, for you to say you believe in the Freedom of Information Law and for you to sign bills reforming the Freedom of Information Law, but excluding yourself.”
Dick Dadey, executive director of the good-government organization Citizens Union, said no record of emails or conversations between Cuomo and his staff or interested parties leaves New Yorkers in the dark about how policy decisions are made.
“Any elected official should communicate in a way that’s accessible to the public,” he said. “The process of getting to an outcome is just as important as the outcome.”
JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com; Twitter.com/JonCampbellGAN
Includes reporting by Albany Bureau Chief Joseph Spector.