Elmhurst Tosses Inefficient Email System

Elmhurst IL

05 January, 2022

12:14 PM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst has shifted to a new email system that is expected to be more efficient. Officials say it will be easier to search for correspondence when responding to public records requests. Last month, the city moved from the GroupWise email system to the more common Outlook. The city's old system required employees to manually go through their emails for topics sought by requesters of public records. Most systems allow search terms to be used to find emails. "GroupWise was not designed for easy searching and production of emails," City Manager Jim Grabowski said in a memo last week. To make the new system work, Grabowski gently encouraged aldermen to use their city email addresses, rather than their private ones, to make records searches more efficient. Some aldermen regularly use their own email accounts for city business. In last week's memo, Grabowski told aldermen that he was "hoping we can all agree that all outgoing email regarding City business be sent through your City account." Patch has experienced the city's email problems firsthand with its public records requests. In August, Patch filed a request for correspondence from the city related to a gravel pile on Van Auken Street. This was after police said a DUI suspect ran into the pile, killing her passenger. It took more than two months to get the city's response to the request. The city, in part, cited its poor email system. "After attorney review and limited global search capabilities, we have found that the City of Elmhurst has no records responsive to your request," the city said in a reply. Patch also has yet to get an answer to its public records request from Nov. 23. It is seeking emails related to 374 Aberdeen Court, where residents are upset with a neighbor's years-long construction project. Under state law, such records must be produced within five business days of a request, unless an extension is sought.