Constituents Email To City Council Is Public Unless | News

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- At City Hall, where they're required to keep the city business public, there's concern about posting constituents emails publicly.

"I think most people who communicate with city council members don't expect that communication to be put in an electronic fishbowl," said Robin Lumb.

Councilman Lumb met with several council members, in an open meeting, to see if posting the emails publicly will have a chilling effect on how they do city business.

Right now the city council president is the only one publicly posting his emails on a regular basis.

"Previously they had been posted at a public website and the city has changed some of its website technology. The only person that is routinely posting some of its emails is Councilman Stephen Joost," said Lumb.

A Times Union public records request for all January 2012 incoming emails to city council members has raised concerns about what is confidential and what is exempted from Florida's public records law.

"The question is not whether we're going to comply, but we've been advised by general council there are various ways to comply ," said Lumb.

The general counsel's advice to council members is that emails with information of alleged child abuse or that violates health information privacy laws are exempted from public record, but emails from constituents are generally not confidential.

General Counsel Cindy Laquidara said her office will develop a process to sort it out, to determine what would be exempted based on the information.

"It is a process of producing emails and first verifying that there isn't any information that the law has prohibited the elected officials from putting into the public domain," said Laquidara.

Florida sunshine law states any email you send to a public official becomes a public record, as long as the information does not meet one of the exemptions.

While city council members are trying to work out a way to post their constituents emails publicly you can go to city hall and read them.

We, as a news organization, often make requests for public information and even that request is subject to the public records law.