I am looking to have a programmer go into my server and setup my email accounts and autoresponders for new users and people that post something. Basically i do not know how to set that up and would like to give a programmer permission to do it for me. What is the right way of granting access without risking them taking, messing or stealing anything on or from my website.

You really don't need a programmer to do that. Most servers now have demo vids on how to do this. These are incredibly easy things to do yourself. If you really need a "programmer" then you have to lend him some trust. My clients give me access to everything and of course i would never even think of doing anything malicious.

Have you asked your hosting support team? If our hosting clients ask us we will happily set up email accounts for them and anything else they ask for, it's all part and parcel of hosting.

And as Jason says, it is not a programmer but a server manager you need, and to be able to do what you need they will need the username and password to your account and therefore have FULL access to everything.

Got it! I will contact Knownhost and have the same convo with them and see what they say.