[Vision2020] e-mail as public record (was lurking)

[Tom Ivie]

I am not a "legal mind" and I could be wrong, but if I remember right, it is a matter of public record only if the electronic transmission was sent to an official public email address (not something like ... at moscow.com or ... at turbonet.com.  This issue came up a few years ago when the UI administration asked for input from staff and faculty about cost-cutting ideas.  The administration said that any input would be anonymous and without retribution.  The spokesman review did a public records request and by law the UI had to turn over the e-mailed input and they quoted some of the people in the article (much to some of their dismay).  

DonaldH675 at aol.com wrote:      Visionaries:
   
  Perhaps one of our legal minds can answer this question.  Are emails to city officials part of the public record?  If so, and if any one gives a hoot, they could make a public records request to any of the city council members for copies of the emails they received today and learn the identity of our shy correspondent.  However, for most of us, particularly those of us who recognize phrases and writing style, it's already apparent.  And, of course it points out a major difference between Councilmen Ament, Dickison, and Stout and our shirking lurking Visionary.  Those public servants attach their name to what they think and say and do; they are responsive to their electorate; and above all else - they treat seriously the oath they gave last night to uphold the laws of the state and city statutes.
   
  There can not be, in my mind, any compromise that chips away at the Comprehensive Plan for the city.  The trap which was so easily sprung on our former city council and a holdover member of the current council (not that they weren't mostly willing, indeed eager victims) was that somehow not allowing educational institutions downtown was darned rude.  Wrongo - Bongo!  Eroding the integrity of the comprehensive plan was simple-minded, transparent, and rude; pandering to arrogant law-breakers, falling for the easy flattery of silver-tongued devils, cozying up to the dog-collar dragoons, was even ruder; selling out down-town retail to a non tax paying bible college - that was the rudest cut of all. 
   
   Unbossed, unbought, uncompromised, and smarter than whips, Councilmen Ament, Dickison, and Stout signal a new day in city government.  Thank God.  And, quite aside from that piece of gigantic good news, at long last we are spared the sight of kittenish simpering, coy eyelash batting, and the junior high gum-popping routine which has marked the past several years of council meetings.   
   
  Rose Huskey

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi
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