State says electronic messages from council meetings are public records
CHAMPAIGN — City officials must turn over electronic correspondence council members send and receive during meetings, regardless of what kind of media or means they use to do so, the state attorney general's office said Tuesday.
The legally binding opinion was sent to city officials and The News-Gazette after the city denied a July request from the newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act seeking "all electronic communications, including cellphone text messages, sent and received by members of the city council and the mayor during city council meetings and study sessions since and including May 3."
After the initial request, the city provided The News-Gazette with 24 pages of emails generated during city council meetings. Officials withheld the remainder of the documents, arguing that the correspondence is not public record if it exists on council members' personal accounts and cellphones.
In defending the city's decision to deny the request, Deputy City Attorney Trisha Crowley wrote in a letter to the attorney general's public access counselor that the documents are not public records, and therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, if they are not in the possession of the public body.
On Aug. 1, the newspaper requested a review of the city's denial.
"It is very possible and likely that city council members received communications that aid in the elected officials' formulation of opinions and that consequently affect their votes," the newspaper wrote in a letter to the counselor.
The newspaper further suggested that, "Regardless of their form, communications pertaining to the transaction of public business — being received and used by individual members of an official body in their role as a member of that public body during an ongoing public meeting — should be public records."
On Tuesday, the binding opinion from the attorney general's office stated that "whether information is a 'public record' is not determined by where, how or on what device the record was created."
The question is whether one or more members of a public body used the record to conduct the affairs of government, the office determined.
"The City's argument that text messages and emails pertaining to public business which are generated from private equipment are not public records is clearly inconsistent with the General Assembly's intention, as stated in section 1 of FOIA (5 ILCS 140/ 1 (West 2010)), that the public have 'full disclosure of information relating to the decisions, policies, procedures, rules, standards, and other aspects of government activity,'" wrote Michael Luke, counsel to the attorney general.
The attorney general's office directed the city take "immediate and appropriate action" to comply with the original FOIA request and furnish the records to the newspaper.
So how does the city go about getting personal emails and text messages from the phone and email accounts of city council members?
Assuming this happens, who decides which messages pertain to city business?
If half of an email has somehting to do with the city and the other half has to do with a personal matter, does the entire email get released? Who makes the decision with regard to how much of the information is to be released?
This seems over the top to me.
thelowedown, perhaps you're right, and my guess is that it won't happen again.
But still, it doesn't answer the question(s): how does the public obtain the information from personal email accounts and phones, and who interprets the information?
If a council member sends a text message after a meeting is over from his or her personal cell phone, is that public information if it pertains to the city?
What about all phone conversations within city hall? Should every phone conversation of the mayor and city council and city managers and all city employees be taped and made public?
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