BRICK – A resident expressed concern that old township emails were being deleted, but officials said they are being looked at for archiving.
During the recent Township Council meeting, resident Charles Bacon said a volume of old e-mails was set to be removed in “what is reportedly being called ‘the purge.’ I have serious concerns about the timing, the optics and the impact this will have on the public trust.”
Bacon added, “this is not a normal housekeeping task when done on the height of an election year. It is a decision that raises questions and the public deserves answers. Why is this being done now? Why is this being done during campaign season instead of or after the election?”
Bacon ran for council in 2015 as a Republican. The current administration is Democrat.
Bacon asked the Council, “who authorized this? Was it authorized by the full council or is this an administrative decision?”
He also wanted to know whether state retention rules had been reviewed and if this plan complies with New Jersey regulations for record keeping. He also asked “was there any consideration of public perception?”
He said that even if this was technically allowed, “it sends the wrong message.”
He wanted the plan halted until after the township election which features a mayoral race between incumbent Democrat Mayor Lisa Crate and Republican challenger Madeline Colagiovanni Iannarone.
Crate was appointed mayor in 2023 when Mayor John Ducey stepped down to become a Superior Court judge. She went on to win election in November 2023 to finish the final two years of Ducey’s term, and is seeking her first full term as mayor.
Iannarone is seeking her first term as mayor and is currently serving as the president of the Brick Township Board of Education. She is in the final year of her three-year school board term. Iannarone heads a ticket that includes Lisa Reina, Greg Cohen and Perry Albanese who are running for three council seats.
Crate’s slate includes Councilwoman Heather de Jong who is seeking her fourth term on the council, as well as newcomers Dan Ward and Rocco Lepore.
Bergin clarified the matter telling The Brick Times that the plan referenced by Bacon “was a communication where the IT Director (Jeff Schmiedeberg) is checking with the Township Archivist (Bryan Dickerson) on the State’s record retention rules. His inquiry was based on the fact that the IT department is transferring its archived data to a new system.”
Bergin said Schmiedeberg wanted to know “if the volume of information (emails dating back to 2008) needed to be retained, or if it could be purged. Jeff requested information from the Archivist to make sure he followed the record retention rules before deleting anything.”
“Jeff asked me about it during one of our meetings, and I advised him to check with Bryan and the Township Clerk (Lynnette Iannarone) who is the Custodian of Records. This is the policy – all records retention requests, filing of records and destroying them is regulated by the State, facilitated in each town by the Custodian of Record, which is usually the Township Clerk,” Bergin added.
Bergin explained, “those records have not been deleted. The discussion was to submit the request to the State. Records are not purged or destroyed without specific approval from the State in writing. The Township did not file the necessary application for State approvals and will maintain all records until 2026.”
