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. Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, was sworn in as speaker at noon the following day.
But before he gave up the gavel to Straus, the council, which oversees computer issues for the Legislature, let Craddick take what he wanted and deleted everything else, officials told The Associated Press. Billingsley said the computers from Craddick's office were recycled and that Straus got his own computer systems that did not have the old files on them.
Government watchdogs who complain would argue that files on a government computer belong to the state of Texas, and therefore should not be wiped.
Deleting files from individual employees in the legislature is standard procedure, but the rules on the files of the representatives themselves seems more fuzzy. Not only was Tom Craddick just a member, but he was the speaker of the entire House presiding over multiple contentious terms. So, this could be a story to watch.
