Draft WTC Evidence Retention Directive for Mayor's Staff, Oct 2007

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT/ATTY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION Office of the Mayor: World Trade Center Document Retention Directive As we have communicated in the past, the City of New York remains obligated to preserve documents that may concern or be relevant to the ongoing litigation relating to the response to the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center (“WTC”) buildings following the attacks of September 11,2001. The New York City Law Department and our outside counsel have informed the Mayor’s Office that this obligation includes the preservation of all documents and evidence, whether in paper or electronic form, which relate in any way to, among other things, the matters listed below and which may have been generated, created, received, sent, or distributed by the Mayor’s Office or any of its current or former employees. Categories of WTC-related matters that we have recently identified include: (1) The implementation by City agencies of the findings and recommendations in the WTC Health Panel Report, “Addressing the Health Impacts of 9-11: Report and Recommendations to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’’ (the “Health Panel Report Implementation”). “Implementation” is intended broadly to include, for example, initial planning/preparation, establishment and ongoing activities, operations, tasks, etc., of committees, groups, and projects recommended by the Health Panel Report, such as the WTC Medical Working Group, the WTC Health Coordinator’s Office and WTC Centers of Excellence. (2) Projects related to the search for the remains of victims of the WTC attacks (“The Search Projects”). The Search Projects include but are not limited to the following types of efforts: (i) the building and rooftop searches performed at the Deutsche Bank Building (130 Liberty Plaza), the Millennium Hotel (55 Church Street), 1 Liberty Plaza, 130 Cedar Street, and Fitterman Hall; (ii) the re-excavation projects at: Haul Road, the Greek Orthodox Church, Liberty Street, and the West Side Highway; and (iii) the debris sifting projects at 11 Water Street and the 39"" Street Pier in Brooklyn. (3) The deconstruction/demolition of buildings in Lower Manhattan heavily damaged by the WTC attacks, including the Deutsche Bank building (130 Liberty Plaza), 4 Albany and Fitterman Hall (the “Deconstruction Projects”). These categories, and some of the specific items and projects mentioned, are only examples of the types of WTC-related matters we have identified to date. Other relevant matters will likely arise in the near future. Accordingly, please be advised that you must retain, and that you may not delete, erase, alter or otherwise destroy, any relevant data from your work or personal computers, PDAs, electronic data systems, and any other electronic equipment that you may have used in conjunction with your work on any WTC-related matters. Documents that must be preserved include: all e-mail messages and files (including both work and personal e-mail accounts), correspondence, drafts of working documents, contracts, agreements, memoranda, reports, personal notes, administrative and computer records, word processing files, spreadsheets, voice mail messages and files, back-up voice mail files, backup e-mail files, deleted e- mails, data files, program files, temporary files, system history files, web site information stored in textual, graphical or audio format, web site log files, cache files, cookies, and data stored on hard drives, CDs, floppy disks. PDAs, servers, backup tapes, and any other electronic media. If you have any doubt as to whether particular data should be preserved, you must preserve the data. To the extent possible, these documents should be kept in the locations in which they are maintained in the regular course of business so that we can properly document the source of each document. Because we are under a legal obligation to maintain all documents and information regarding the Health Report Implementation, Search Projects and Deconstruction Projects (as described above), ;f is critical that no documents or evidence, in paper or electronic form, be deleted, erased, altered, or otherwise destroyed by anyone. This policy also applies to any documents you may create in the future that relate to your WTC-related work. Please do not hesitate to contact me at @cityhall.nyc.gov if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation in this matter.

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