Municipalities' lawyer: RTK decision broadens access to public officials' e-mails

Guy Beneventano, a lawyer with Nauman, Smith, Shissler & Hall in Harrisburg, is solicitor for Dauphin County and a couple other municipalities in the area. He wrote an article for a municipal government publication advising municipalities on what the new right-to-know law says about e-mails.

It's detailed and technical, so don't say I didn't warn you. I'll pull out here one of the most interesting parts.

 Beneventano says the office of open records' decision granting an appeal for e-mails from Worcester Township supervisors sent a message that other public officials should hear: "It potentially exposes to public review all e-mails on government matters between elected or appointed officials, regardless of whether the message is sent from or received at a home computer, or otherwise 'copied' to the solicitor."

He continues:
 
 "... recognize that Mollick significantly expands the scope of Right-to-Know for the following three reasons:

1. unless reversed on appeal, it signals OOR's intention to use the Sunshine law to construe (i.e., interpret) RTK, a practice which will inevitably lead to the broadest possible application of Right-to-Know's 'presumption' of openness;
2. sweeping, non-specific requests for documents (e-mail or otherwise) must be addressed, despite the burdensome, time-consuming nature of such requests; and
3. e-mail communications between board members must be made available to the public if the subject matter concerns agency business, regardless of whether such messages are sent from or received at home computers or personally-owned, hand-held devices (e.g., BlackBerries, iPhones)."

So, although e-mails by public officials concerning public business that are on private companies' servers are off-limits to the public, Beneventano is letting officials know that e-mails they send from home or from hand-held devices can be reviewed.