Craddick's cleanup

I'm amused by this.

Before the House voted Speaker Tom Craddick out of his powerful job, state officials wiped his computers clean and deleted scores of electronic files, raising concerns that important public records may have been destroyed.

Files on one shared computer network drive were saved, but unless Craddick specifically requested them, computer hard drives and electronic records associated with individual employees were deleted, officials said.

Craddick left the speaker's office on Jan. 13, returning to the state House as a rank-and-file member without a vast staff and without the sweeping power the presiding officer wields.

The computers were removed from the speaker's office to be wiped clean at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12, said Anne Billingsley, spokeswoman for the Texas Legislative Council, which oversees computer issues for the Legislature. Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, was sworn in as speaker at noon the next day.

But before Craddick gave up the gavel to Straus, the council let Craddick take what he wanted and deleted everything else, officials said.

"Everything that Speaker Craddick had on his computers as far as data and records, he was allowed to take with him into his (state representative's) office," Billingsley said. "As far as the computers go, they took all the computers for the speaker's office and they got wiped."

Deleting computer files is standard procedure, Craddick's chief of staff Kate Huddleston said. But it's not clear what files were deleted, setting off alarms among government watchdogs.

Fred Lewis, an independent government watchdog, called the deletions "outrageous."

"If it's on a state computer, it's a state record. They're not his records. They belong to the people of Texas," Lewis said. "I think there should be an investigation on whether or not he illegally destroyed state records."

My reaction upon seeing this was, is this really standard procedure? If the commenters on Burkablog are to be believed, apparently so. It would be standard in the business world, but then we don't have open records laws to worry about. This followup story goes into more detail.

[The Texas Legislative Council] said it followed its regular procedures, which included computer "sanitization" guidelines that had been issued in 2003 and revised in 2007. The bottom line: only the legislators themselves -- and in this case former speaker Craddick -- get to decide what to keep and what not to keep.

"The legislator makes all decisions regarding their files," the council said in an unsigned news release on the stationery of council director Milton Rister. "The council simply follows its operating procedures in reformatting the computers for use by other or new legislators."

But state Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, said Rister should resign over the incident.

"I'm very concerned about records being destroyed the day before the election of a new speaker without anyone in the Legislature in charge of stopping it or preventing it," Merritt said. "Milton Rister needs to resign."

Council spokeswoman Araminta Everton declined to comment on Merritt's request.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, said he was filing legislation to prevent such destruction in the future. He said his bill was designed to "preserve the public's right to know about legislative information when a legislator leaves office."

I think that's a better approach. At the very least, there's no reason why a backup of the computer can't be done before the wipe is performed. As for Milton Rister, he's been the subject of controversy since he was first named director of the TLC.

And of course, with Tom Craddick, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Even as fellow House members were wresting him from his leadership post, former House Speaker Tom Craddick directed state officials to renovate his cherished Capitol apartment, spending all but $18.55 from a restoration fund that once totaled over $1.3 million.

The final purchase order -- $45,400 for two historic Texas oil paintings -- was issued just hours before Craddick had to hand power over to Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, after House members voted him out of the No. 1 post because they didn't like his autocratic leadership style. Straus got Craddick's job as well as the keys to the 1,804-square-foot apartment behind the House chamber.

Private funds, donated from wealthy contributors and lobbyists, were used to pay for the renovation. State employees were also dispatched to perform minor installation work on the project late last year, officials said.

Craddick, a Midland oilman, announced he was withdrawing from the speaker's race on Jan. 4, after it was clear he no longer had a majority of the House behind him. A day later, on Jan. 5, the Texas State Preservation Board approved the expenditure of $124,000 on the apartment, including the purchase of a $75,000 crystal chandelier that had already been hung over the speaker's spacious dining room.

All told, the State Preservation Board -- in charge of modifications to the state capitol -- approved $169,400 in expenditures on the apartment renovation during Craddick's final week in office. The last expenditure, for the oil paintings, was approved just before 5 p.m. on Jan. 12, only hours before the Republican speaker formally relinquished power, records show.

I have to admit, the man does have a certain flair.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 06, 2009 to That's our Lege