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Town of Grand Island concerned with deletion of files

Fri, Apr 29th 2016 06:45 pm

The orderly transition of power in town government in January wasn't so orderly, according to Islander Rus Thompson, who has told media outlets he filed a complaint with the Erie County District Attorney's Office about the deletion of files from the Town Hall computer during the changeover of town supervisor from Mary Cooke to Nathan McMurray.

Town Supervisor Nathan McMurray, in a speech to the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce April 12, said, "When I got to Town Hall, there was nothing in my office except for a code book. ... There wasn't one file on my computer. All of it was gone. Nothing."

In a press release this week, McMurray wrote: "It is true that someone using the former supervisor's user name and password did, in fact, delete nearly 1,800 files from our Town Hall server sometime during the last days of the prior supervisor's term. Why this was done and the scope of the impact is unclear."

McMurray said the server at Town Hall is backed up regularly "to avoid any potential negative impact of either accidental or malicious deletion." The town's IT team was able to restore all of the deleted files, he said.

"We remain concerned, however, that existing laws and policies regarding the proper handling of both hard and electronic copies of documents may not have been adhered to," McMurray said. He said he will work with Town Hall colleagues to avoid any further loss of information and "to re-set and reinforce policies and procedures regarding documentation retention and use."

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