The Shasta case highlights the weaknesses of public documentation policy

Although Shasta County Executive Patrick Jones was cleared of any wrongdoing when he destroyed a letter he received from California's attorney general earlier this year, open government advocates said the incident exposed weaknesses in the county's policy on handling public records.

The county hired an investigative firm that concluded Jones did not act inappropriately when he disposed of and did not make public a letter he received from the Attorney General's office.

In Jones's defense, the 13-page report states, among other things, that at the time Jones received the letter, Shasta County had no policy requiring supervisors to retain letters addressed to them, nor had the county provided training on the legal requirements to do so.