Public-records dispute flares up in Brunswick
Posted June 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 AM by John HoodAre all emails sent from a county government email account considered public records? Or must reporters, watchdogs, and the general public limit their public-records request to emails related to public business?
That’s the debate in Brunswick County, where the Beacon submitted a request for all emails sent from six department heads in the county. Here are each side’s arguments:
Brunswick County Attorney Huey Marshall argues only e-mails “made or received pursuant to law or ordinance in connection to transaction of public business” are public record.
Marshall says personal e-mails sent to or from a county-maintained e-mail addresses are not sent in the transaction of public business and therefore not public record but said any e-mail sent to or from a personal account or device in connection with public business are public.
“It has to be related to work,” he argued.
Ashley Perkinson, an attorney with the North Carolina Press Association, said they’re all public records.
“First of all, public documents are public records unless there is a specific statutory exemption. It’s deemed public regardless of physical form or characteristic,” Perkinson said. “What they need to be operating under is to deem all of those e-mails as public record. If it’s a personal e-mail, maybe they should consider using a personal e-mail address.”
Perkinson said the burden to prove something is not public record is on the public agency or official—not the person requesting access to public information.
Disputes about access to public record are commonplace at every level of government. Former Gov. Mike Easley famously “chunked” what appears to have been public correspondence, and his administration did not have a reasonable policy for archiving emails for public access to state government. Several media organizations sued him. At the federal level, as recent Shaftesbury Society speaker Napoleon Byers explained, FOIA requests are numerous and sometimes controversial:
June 5th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Nope. Sorry. Any e-mail sent to or from a work-related e-mail address is not the property of the user, but of their employer. Government employees should not be using their work-provided and taxpayer-funded e-mail system for personal use, so if they do, it’s all public record. By the same token, they should also not be allowed to use external e-mail sites such as Gmail or Hotmail when at work, because we don’t need government employees using unmonitored e-mail systems to conduct shady business. So the short version is: If you work for the government, e-mail you send or receive at work is all public record.
When I worked for Microsoft, I used to give out my Microsoft e-mail address to all of my friends and family and I encouraged them to e-mail me there; but when Microsoft announced that work e-mail was to be used only for work, I set up a separate e-mail account for personal stuff. Now, in my current job, I don’t give my work e-mail to anyone except clients; friends and family know to reach me through my personal e-mail address.