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Oct
29
UPDATE: This Columbus Dispatch piece ran in the same edition as the article that reported on a case in which elected official’s private e-mails, about official business, were not turned over in a public records request. The article discusses how the Ohio legislature had a committee study record retention and concluded that legislators should not be using private e-mails for official business:
State and local government officials should no longer be allowed to skirt Ohio public-records laws by using private e-mail accounts to conduct official government business.
That is the view of a 22-member committee created by the legislature to examine public-records issues. The panel approved its final recommendations yesterday [10/25/-07], including one that says electronic communication “in the course of public business should be treated consistently under existing public records laws and court decisions.” [my emphasis]
“We want to make sure nobody is gaming the process by doing public work on private devices,” said Sen. David Goodman, R-New Albany, a co-chairman of the Privacy/Public Records Access Study Committee.
Disclosure: Sen. Goodman is a former law school classmate of mine, whom I consider to be a friend, even though he is a Republican (that’s a joke, David). He is term-limited in 2008 and is running for a judicial position.
In regard to official business conducted through private e-mail accounts, the article reports:
The Ohio House and Senate took action in early October, instituting written records-retention policies that discourage members from using private e-mail accounts to conduct official business. The policies also say that e-mails discussing official business should be kept according to each chamber’s retention schedule, regardless of what e-mail account is used.
Still, similar to the issue with who gets to cover the legislature’s activities, there’s just something odd to me about them making the rules that govern their behavior, even if that’s how it’s always been done or is done by many, maybe even more states’ legislatures.
ORIGINAL POST:
This story comes from the Columbus Dispatch. Which is fine.
However, State Representative Josh Mandel represents the 17th District [full disclosure: I live in his district, I did not vote for him but he and I, and now his staff, communicate somewhat regularly], which sits squarely in the Plain Dealer’s readership. Anyone want to respond to why the PD isn’t reporting on this story?
Oh – the story. Sorry.
Jeffrey L. Glasgow, a retired Franklin County assistant prosecutor, is testing the limits of Ohio’s public-records law by demanding that Mandel, R-Lyndhurst, turn over e-mail messages from his private account that pertain to state business.
Glasgow’s case, now before the Ohio Supreme Court, is thought to be the first courtroom test of an emerging area of open-records laws: whether e-mail and text messages from a government employee’s private accounts are public records if the messages have to do with official business.
Glasgow contends that Mandel and fellow Rep. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, have been less than forthcoming in their responses to his demand for records about the two representatives’ quest to get Ohio pensions to withdraw their investments from companies that do business with Iran and Sudan.
“I just want to know who’s talking to whom in making the law,” Glasgow said. “That’s the motivation. I just think secrecy in government is a bad idea.”
Hmm. Secrecy in government. Bad idea? Where have I heard that before?
Seems that there’d been a public records request that was fulfilled, except that it didn’t contain any records of some e-mail exchanges known to have occurred – between Mandel and a Dispatch reporter, on official business issues, through Mandel’s private e-mail account.
Now, Attorney General Marc Dann’s office is defending Mandel and State Rep. Shannon Jones, Mandel’s co-sponsor on HB 151 (the forced divestment from Iran and Sudan bill aimed at five of Ohio’s pensions) and it will be tricky because Dann’s office has urged elected officials not to use private e-mails for official business:
Attorney General Marc Dann has said that e-mail and text messages are public documents if they deal with government business, even if they come from private accounts. Dann has urged public officials not to use private e-mail and text accounts to conduct their official business.
However, Dann’s office is representing Mandel and Jones in their responses to Glasgow’s lawsuit. The attorney general’s spokesman, Leo Jennings III, said he couldn’t comment on whether the two state representatives have complied with Dann’s directives.
“We have to represent them,” Jennings said. “The legislature is our client.”
Mandel’s staff maintains that they don’t have his computer so they don’t have access to the e-mails. However, as anyone who has traveled knows, you certainly don’t need your personal computer to access your personal mail, depending on your mail server.
Sounds like a great story to follow, by Mandel’s local paper. Wink, wink, BIG wink.
Or a blogger? Check out the Public Records Directory Blog.
Cross-posted from Wide Open.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:41 pm October 29th, 2007 in Government, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, Tech
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[...] got plenty of examples of Ohio state legislators refusing to handover e-mails and battline with each other over what must be turned over. Here’s the MSM’s latest [...]