The News Herald, Panama City

E-mails linger for years

March 11, 2007

Warning: Your e-mail communications may be subject to public disclosure

By Tony Bridges

PANAMA CITY — Four years ago, Panama City resident Dale Robitaille e-mailed the city’s mayor to complain about trash piling up at the city marina. The issue itself has long since been resolved, but that e-mail? It still exists on a city server and Web site, unbeknownst to the sender. Robitaille recently discovered something other citizens may not know: The e-mails and letters they write to public officials will, under Florida law, linger for years as a public record, available to anyone who asks for them.

Today is Sunshine Sunday, the final day of the annual Sunshine Week, in which media outlets, First Amendment groups and library associations focus on the importance of open records and transparent government.

As part of that, The News Herald talked to members of the public and public officials about their open correspondence.

For Robitaille and others who’ve fired off missives to local leaders over the last few years, it’s not a big deal.

“That’s of no consequence to me that they are,” Robitaille said. “If I didn’ t want someone to know my criticisms, I wouldn’t sign my name.”

In fact, some said the idea of the public seeing their complaints can be a good thing. That way, the concerns are harder for government bureaucrats and elected officials to ignore.

“There’s an implied message” when an e-mail can be read and the official reaction watched by so many people, said John Salak, who wrote in 2003 to complain about the city’s plan to spend $2.5 million to buy land for a new federal courthouse.

Corey Seymour, a Panama City Beach man, wrote to the County Commission earlier this month about traffic concerns in Bay County. He decided to write because he does not have time to attend meetings and does not have direct access to commissioners.

“I didn’t know it was public, but that doesn’t hurt my feelings any,” he said. “I think it’s a great thing ... especially for accountability purposes.”

Once a complaint becomes a public record, officials cannot turn around and claim no one ever told them about the problem, he said.

Of course, e-mail and letter writers need to keep in mind just how broad the audience will be.

“They just should know that if they use, um, ‘overly expressive language,’ everybody will see it,” said Mike Bush, city clerk of Panama City.

City, county and state officials have started attaching notices to all outgoing e-mails to remind people their correspondence could become public.

Panama City added a note to city e-mail in 2005 that warned, “Florida has a very broad public records law. Most written communications regarding public business are public records available to the public and media upon request.”

The county attaches a similar disclaimer: “Your e-mail communications may ... be subject to public disclosure.”

The state Legislature even passed a law that took effect last year requiring all agencies covered by Florida Statute 119 — the open records law — to post warnings that e-mail addresses become public when corresponding with state agencies.

“I think most (people) are OK with that,” said Adria Harper, director of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee. “It’s very rare that we get a call from somebody complaining.

“If we didn’t have the law the way we do now, we would be in the dark about what our government is doing.”

Nationally, citizens tend to believe their local and state governments are fairly transparent, according to a poll conducted for the American Society of Newspaper Editors as part of Sunshine Week.

The poll of 1,008 adults — conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University — found 60 percent felt their local governments did business in the open, while 53 percent felt that way about their state government.

Reproduced courtesy of the Panama City News Herald.
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