Use of Private E-Mail Accounts for Public Business
I continue to be thankful for Sarah Palin's incredible ability to get
pedestrian government ethics issues into the public eye. This time it's
the use of private e-mails for public business, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/us/politics/24palin.html" target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's New York <i>Times</i></a>.<br>
<br>
There are lots of new rules about using government computers for
personal purposes, a new spin on the common misuse of public
property provision (most often violated by the use of government vehicles
and equipment).<br>
<br>
But the use of private e-mail accounts for public purposes is actually a more
serious problem, and there are far fewer rules about this. Private
e-mail accounts are often used to hide government business from the
public. For example, in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/652" target="”_blank”">a
February 2009 blog post </a>I wrote about a citizen suit against the
city and several council members
regarding their use of private e-mail to discuss a very controversial issue.<br>
<br>
A local opponent of then-governor Palin made a records request for
private e-mails from her and her staff. The e-mails sent were heavily
redacted, and it would be highly invasive to determine if they were complete.<br>
<br>
The attorney general's office argued that state officials should be
able to decide what is or is not subject to public disclosure. The
court determined that "private e-mail accounts may be used to conduct
state business, subject
to the same laws and regulations related to preservation as e-mails
originating from state servers."<br>
<br>
That's the law in Alaska, but should private e-mail accounts be used
for public business at all? I can understand that sometimes it might be
difficult to access one's government e-mail account, or people might
send a government-related e-mail to an official's personal account. But
there is a simple solution to these problems: require that all
such e-mails be forwarded to the official's public account. Then all
the records are in one place, and they are public property, available onsite, and outside
the control of the official.<br>
<br>
The bother involved with this solution is almost zero.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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