You are here
Use of Private E-Mail Accounts for Public Business
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Robert Wechsler
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 an
article in yesterday's New York Times.
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).
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 February 2009 blog post 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.
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.
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."
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.
The bother involved with this solution is almost zero.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
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).
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 February 2009 blog post 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.
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.
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."
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.
The bother involved with this solution is almost zero.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
Story Topics:
- Robert Wechsler's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
