Posted on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 : 10:01 a.m.
Do you care about City Council e-mails?
By Stefanie Murray
AnnArbor.com government reporter Ryan Stanton has a story today about more than 2,700 pages of e-mail exchanged between members of Ann Arbor City Council during meetings in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The e-mails were obtained by citizens through Freedom of Information Act requests.
Ever since they first came to light earlier this year, the e-mails have sparked controversy, triggered a lawsuit and forced at least one councilmember out of office.
Comments
UPSman
Thu, Nov 5, 2009 : 5:14 p.m.
If you are sending e-mails as part of your employment they're like sending a letter/document - they leave a trail that leads right back to you through your computer! If you don't want other's to know what you're communicating about call them or meet with them. As a public official in today's world you're required to be transparent. Once you attempt to block the public from seeing what you're doing while in office it has the appearance of attempting to hide something. The stronger you attempt to block information from getting out the more the public wants to know why - what's in there they don't want me to see. I know personally I've sent e-mails intentionally when the circumstance called for it so I had a written response from the person I'm seeking answers from. We're too far along in the internet age to be doing things on your computer that you don't want others to know about! Especially if you are in a "public trust" position!