Court: City does not have to release all e-mail

The 2nd District Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld a decision that the city of Clearwater does not have to release to the St. Petersburg Times e-mails that two city employees sent on government computers but deemed "personal."

But the court found the question of whether the definition of public records should be expanded to include all e-mails stored on government computers a "matter of great public importance."

"We make no assumptions about the specific government employees who were the target of the Times' investigation," the ruling said.

"However, a government employee who spends most of the day working on private matters and personal correspondence can currently respond to a public records request by declaring that the records of it are not 'public."'

Times attorney Alison Steele said the ruling clears the way for an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

In 2000, the Times requested a review of the e-mails to determine whether an assistant city manager and a former planning and development administrator spent time working on a personal storage business while at their city jobs.

Some e-mails were provided, but the employees were allowed to withhold e-mails they considered personal and unrelated to city business on the basis that they were not public records.

A Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court judge later ruled that the e-mails in question were not public records.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright