Politicians skirting public record laws by conducting public business on private email accounts is becoming a scandal celebre.
That Hillary Clinton kept a few private email accounts and used her own server may not seem like a big deal. But it is. Politicians’ emails are public emails — as in the public’s property. As in, don’t touch my stuff.
Emails contain a level of unguarded communication between government officials and the powerful people with whom they’re wheeling and dealing that the public would otherwise be unable to access. Pulling emails out of the public realm is a slap in the face to every American. Adding insult to injury, there are nearly zero reprecussions for blowing past the mandate to use government email.
There are others joining Clinton on the growing list of shady politicians with little regard for maintaining an informed public: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, half-term governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, Bush adviser and canned ham look-alike Karl Rove.
Recently New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo instituted a policy in which all communication of rank and file state employees are being destroyed after 90 days. This measure has rendered almost all requests for political emails in the state of New York useless. A politician with something to hide could just hem and haw for three months and then oops! — all the information being sought just happened to get deleted. Which begs the question of what Cuomo is trying to hide.
The news of Clinton’s skulduggery broke a few weeks ago, but on Monday, New York newspapers were reporting that the news comes to us via a leak in the Obama administration. The State Department requested the emails as part of a protracted investigation into what happened in Benghazi. Clinton had her underlings dig through the electronic correspondence for the emails her team deemed fitting for public consumption. Clinton delivered 55,000 emails, which an aide recently reminded a roomful of angry journalists during a press conference over this bullshit move, is “a lot.” Maybe, but no one was asking for “a lot” of emails. They were asking for the pertinent emails and because Clinton is keeping those under digital lock and key we just have to trust that she delivered all the important information to the press — even the information that might make her look bad.
Think of all the topics addressed in those emails: her candidacy for president (you know this has been on her mind since 2008), Benghazi, Israel, Iraq, Iran. But we’ll never know because she’s holding our communications and won’t give them back.
There’s a saying in American newsrooms: Get access to public records or lose access to public records. The thinking is, the more officials are used to fulfilling requests for internal communications and public meeting minutes, the more readily available and complete this information will be. With that in mind, here’s a primer on public records and how to get them.
According to Massachusetts state law, “Every record that is made or received by a government entity or employee is presumed to be a public record unless a specific statutory exemption permits or requires it to be withheld in whole or in part.” This applies to every state employee from school superintendents and mayors to senators and state department chiefs and everyone in between.
Public records include emails, but so much more: crime reports, applications for state or local employment, salaries and expense reports, written communications, tape recordings of public calls and meetings, budgets galore, decisions by ethics committees, date books and calendars.
To view or get copies of any of this info, put the request in writing and include that you are making this request under the Massachusetts State Public Records Law G.L. c. 66, § 10(a). Although a public record request in Massachusetts doesn’t have to be in writing, it helps to keep a physical record in case of appeal. The request should be concise and include a clear request for specific data. You can ask for something like a city’s most recent budget or all the communication between the mayor and the firm building the new park — just as long as it’s obvious what you’re after.
The record keeper has 10 business days to respond to the request in writing. The response will explain if the department plans to fill the request, when it may be ready, and how much the information will cost. Record keepers are encouraged to waive public records fees when the information will benefit the larger community, but in my experience, if you’re asking for something out of the ordinary you’ll have to pay. Under the law, record keepers are bound to charge as small a fee as possible, but paying for time spent pulling, copying, and in some cases redacting information is on you. If the amount quoted is too high, you don’t have to get the information. And you can appeal the fee with the state Supervisor of Records. The response from the record keeper may also say the request for information has been denied. The letter must include the reason for denial. This can also be appealed with the state supervisor.
For more information and a sample public records request letter, visit the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s website at www.sec.state.ma.us/ public records section.•
Contact Kristin Palpini at editor@valleyadvocate.com.
Between the Lines: Hands Off My Stuff! Politicians’ emails are public business
