Emails are still not private | IN OUR OPINION

Published 11:19 am Sunday, February 22, 2015

Despite a public records lawsuit that has cost the city of Bainbridge Island roughly $800,000, some on Bainbridge sadly still have not learned what should have been one of the main lessons from the expensive and unnecessary legal battle.

The lesson: There’s no such thing as a “private” email to city officials when the topic is government business.

A stark reminder of the lack of a thorough understanding by some members of the public over the recent public records lawsuit — where Councilman Steve Bonkowski and former council members David Ward and Debbi Lester were sued after it was discovered they had been using their personal email accounts to conduct city business and the city was ruled to have violated the state’s Public Records Act — was on display during last week’s council meeting.

Before the council meeting, Councilman Val Tollefson had penned a position paper on a proposed leash law that was posted on the city’s website.

In his viewpoint, Tollefson recalled how he had received a large number of comments on the topic, and said many of them, both for and against the proposed regulations, were thoughtful and contained reasonable compromises.

Others, not so much.

“A number, unfortunately, have been attacks on the good faith of the members of the council who are working on this issue, have been mean-spirited and reflective of a profound lack of understanding of what it means to live and work side-by-side in a community,” Tollefson wrote.

He also suggested that those public comments should be posted on the city’s website for others to read.

“Take a long look at what your neighbors think. Some of you will be educated. Some of you will be embarrassed,” he wrote.

The request, however, prompted outrage from one Bainbridge resident, who said it wasn’t appropriate for the city to display “private” emails that residents had sent to their council members.

And therein lies one lesson that has not been learned.

“There is no such thing as private correspondence to the council,” City Manager Doug Schulze reminded council members.

It’s a fact that Bainbridge residents should also remember. And if some are now embarrassed, in hindsight, of the recent comments they have made to their elected officials, they should also remember the advice City Attorney Lisa Marshall gave the council during a recent training session on emails and public records: Don’t put anything in an email you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the local paper.