Accidentally released text messages give peek at O’Malley discussions

From The Baltimore Sun:

The text messages were pinging to and from Gov. Martin O’Malley’s BlackBerry. It was the latter part of October, and Election Day was just around the corner.

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Lawyer targeting Modesto over policy of purging emails after 30 days

From The Modesto Bee:

An attorney claims Modesto is violating the state's public records law because the city's computers automatically purge emails once they are 30 days old.

Sacramento attorney Kelly T. Smith filed papers Friday in Stanislaus County Superior Court, asking a judge to order the city to stop deleting emails and revise its policies to come into compliance with the California Public Records Act.

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New Mexico solons claim right to keep official emails private

From The Washington Examiner:

SANTA FE — It may be Sunshine Week — a nationwide initiative focused on the importance of access to public documents and information — but New Mexico lawmakers are halfway toward adopting a resolution creating an exception for legislative emails.

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The House on Sunday voted 48-16 to pass House Concurrent Resolution 1, which proposes limits for releasing emails and other records.

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D.C. Open Government Coalition FOIA lawsuit prompts change in D.C. Council email policies

Council changes rules, issues new interpretation to settle FOIA case

D.C. Councilmembers and staff cannot avoid the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by doing business on personal, rather than government, email accounts, the Council of the District of Columbia agreed [January 23] in settling a lawsuit brought by the D.C. Open Government Coalition.

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NFOIC’s State FOIA Friday for December 21, 2012

State FOIA Friday News A few state FOIA and local open government news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier in the week:

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Editorial: “E” in “email” should not stand for “evasion”

By Kenneth F. Bunting from NFOIC:

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Soon after getting the first CNN producer’s message asking about my availability for a live, next-morning segment with their anchor, I responded affirmatively—even before a half-day meeting had concluded.

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Personal calendar reveals DeMaio met with Manchester, Ca.

From I-Newsource:

San Diego mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio keeps a private calendar that shows he had appointments with newspaper owner Doug Manchester in December and in May, despite his office insisting no records of communication exist between the two men.

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Luzerne County has yet to comply with open-records request for emails

From The Citizen’s Voice:

Luzerne County has acknowledged possessing thousands of emails excluded from an open-records release because of an assumption the emails were deleted.

The emails were from Leonard Piazza, the ousted director of elections fired April 11. The county has resisted access to Piazza’s emails since The Citizens’ Voice filed an April 12 request for Piazza’s emails dating back to Nov. 1, 2010.

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City prevails in former employee’s public records lawsuit, Florida

From The Gainesville Sun:

A circuit court judge has ruled that the city of Gainesville did not violate the state’s public records law by requiring that a former employee pay some $40,000 in advance to process a public records request made in connection with an employment discrimination complaint against the city.

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