Northpinellas: Judge denies Times access to city e-mails

CLEARWATER -- A judge ruled this week that the St. Petersburg Times is not entitled to view e-mails of two Clearwater employees that city officials deemed to be personal.

Circuit Court Judge Anthony Rondolino ruled the e-mails, which were stored on city computers, are not public records because "the present definition of public records does not encompass private correspondence not related to work."

"It is important to note what this is not," Rondolino wrote in his order. "It is not a case where the court is called upon to create some new policy based upon "the public's right to know' about an interesting event."

The issue, Rondolino said, is whether the e-mails are public records at all. "The historical perspective supports the conclusion that the personal communications of an agency employee would not come within the definition of a public record," he wrote.

In October, the Times requested e-mails of Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback and John Asmar, who then was planning and development administrator. The city provided only those e-mails it said were made or received while conducting official business and withheld those the employees said were personal.

In the released e-mails were racy jokes and correspondence about a private business the two had invested in. After the Times reported on those e-mails, Asmar was asked to resign and Brumback was reprimanded.

The Times sued the city in December seeking a court order requiring all e-mails be made public when requested. The Times also wanted access to the archived e-mail of the two employees.

Times attorney George Rahdert said the ruling fails to recognize that much government communication is conducted electronically. He said he is concerned the ruling gives individual employees authority to decide what is private.

"It would be self-selection to the benefit of the individual," he said. "It's important to remember the facts which started the case in the first place involved employees who were abusing their employment running a business on government time and government computers. The point of origin demonstrates the public interest."

There have been many examples of public employees improperly using government time and equipment for non-governmental pursuits, he said.

"Is someone who devotes a huge amount of public time running a business or visiting pornography sites subject to governmental oversight?" Rahdert asked. "The only way you can have oversight is to have access to the records. The oversight ought to include public access to the records."

Clearwater managing editor Joe Childs said the Times will consider appealing.

Assistant city attorney Leslie Dougall-Sides said the judge made the correct decision.

"Generally, the city has liberally provided documents to the media, but we felt in this case the request went beyond what was called for in the statute," Dougall-Sides said.

In the future, city employees probably will sift through e-mails and separate those they deem to be personal before filling public records requests, said City Attorney Pam Akin. However, she said, the city has no plans to issue a policy directing them to do so.

The city discourages employees from using their computers for private e-mail, but it is not prohibited. Akin said the city management can handle problems if employees abuse the privileges.

"Management issues need to be addressed separate from the public records issue," Akin said.

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