Paul,
The inexplicable part is that Garlach either a) thought that helping land a job for the former first lady at a public university wasn’t any of the public’s business, or b) that his e-mails wouldn’t be subject to review under public records laws because he used a private e-mail address.
In the second scenario, Gerlach would have failed to take into account that everyone else (except McQueen Campbell) used a public e-mail address, and that his e-mails would be a part of any document request.
Regardless, any e-mail from Gerlach’s private account that pertained to public business (which Mary Easley’s cushy job certainly did) should be considered a public record. A private e-mail account used for state business isn’t a way to bypass sunshine laws.
One question I would have for Gerlach is whether, after sending them, he deleted e-mails from his private account that pertained to the Mary Easley issue.
