NORTHFIELD — Town officials are seeking aid from Northfield’s Electronic Communications Committee to examine and begin revising the policies that permitted Town Administrator Willie Morales to retrieve emails from the town hall server.

The Selectboard has met with Jerry Scott and Brian Brault of the Electronic Communications Committee; Bradley Warren of Guardian Information Technologies, the company that provides town hall’s information technology services; and Police Chief Robert Leighton to discuss potential improvements to the town’s computer security.

Northfield has been using the bare minimum of the security options that Guardian offers, which is that two signatures from any two town hall employees are required to authorize an email retrieval.

“We fulfill the request, provide the request and fulfillment, and that’s where our responsibility, from our perspective, begins and ends,” Warren told the Selectboard Tuesday. “Do we have recommendations as far as what we would consider best practices, what works, what doesn’t work, in terms of security, email encryption, security of the overall environment? Absolutely. … We have no interest in considering this sensitive or insensitive. Our interest is to fulfill the request.”

A variety of more advanced security options was discussed, like authorizing only certain people to sign for an email retrieval and notifying certain town hall employees when a retrieval has been requested.

“No matter what policy you come up with, we can always play devil’s advocate and say what if,” Warren said. “Say the chair of the Board of Selectmen needs to sign the authorization. Well, what if they’re the bad guy that you’re trying to investigate? There’s no perfect solution.”

Warren also encouraged the Selectboard to include typical computer security practices, like regularly changing passwords.

The Electronic Communications Committee will meet next week to continue its discussion about the email security issue.

The inadequacy of Town Hall’s computer security practices was made apparent when Town Administrator Willie Morales conducted an email retrieval that included police emails.

Per the town’s personnel policy, Morales had unrestricted access to all emails on the town server. Morales’ retrieval of emails was one of the 10 complaints that the Selectboard brought against him in a meeting on March 28, which led to the Selectboard’s decision to negotiate a “separation.” Morales was put on a paid administrative leave on March 30.

In a Selectboard meeting on April 3, Police Chief Robert Leighton — who is running for selectman this spring — said the Office of the Northwestern District Attorney had suspended all email communications with the Northfield Police Department after learning of the town’s inadequate security policies. Normal communications cannot resume until the DA’s office receives a letter from the Northfield Selectboard confirming the policies were changed. Leighton must also file reports with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and the Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services detailing the extent of the email retrieval.

In the April 3 meeting, the Selectboard changed the personnel policy so the town administrator may no longer access emails regarding Police Department business, so as to satisfy the requirements of the DA’s office.

Contact Max Marcus:

413-772-0261, ext. 261

mmarcus@recorder.com