Poll: Email-Gate

[rgbecker]

15. I was hoping for a little consideration of the implications of the use of email.

In Massachusetts the rule is that members of group of town officials (for example: Planning Board) cannot meet without notice to the public. If a quorum should find themselves gathered, no public business is to be discussed. Fine, but that doesn't outlaw a discussion between 2 of the five members which could happen in person, over the phone or via email. By the law, any email between these 2 would not be expected to be in the public record nor would any email between a board member and the public. A phone call also would not be expected to in the public record.

I was hoping there could be a little discussion about these rules for public officials behavior rather than knee jerk partisan raving without much consideration of the rules themselves.

Consider a government official, say an IRS tax assistant or Social Security advisor giving information on the telephone. Are you expecting a searchable public record to be kept of that exchange? If so would a email also need to be retained for the newspaper to search in the near future?

If you can define "Transparency in government" more precisely, then I'll say fuck it or not.

In the end, there are going to be a lot of judgment calls made at all levels of government and in private lives about what communications are public domain and which are not. And given that, it will be discussed in the political world for all eternity, because it is a political question. If you hate Hillary, you won't ever trust her judgment about which communications are of public interest and which are not. If you like her, you would be happy to leave it to her to decide. If you hate her, you no doubt would like every one of her telephone conversations to be transcribed and posted on line. If you like her, you might like to see her have some level of privacy to conduct state affairs as he thinks best. If you hate Obama, you could insist every conversation between him and John Kerry about the Iran Nuclear Negotiations should be provided to the Senate GOP but if you like him, maybe you would be happy to trust him to carry on as he seems fit.