When Kevin Blackler asked to review e-mails sent by councilors since January, the City Clerk's office asked him to first pay a $100 deposit.
“It's a deterrent to anybody participating in the system,” Blackler said.
“It is significant,” Rehbein said of materials available online.
And it is projected to become more comprehensive. The city is in the process of shoring up its system for preserving electronic communications, including relevant individual council e-mails.
In the meantime, though, citizens aren't having an easy time obtaining records. Blackler is among eight people who asked for e-mail exchanges, only to be told to put down a hefty deposit. His interpretation of the city's response to his request was this: “If you want them, put up the bucks, buddy.”
Blackler said he understands that it takes time to pull together materials for the public, but it isn't every citizen who can foot the bill. And from his perspective, the cost essentially removes the documents from the public realm. After learning the cost, just one person so far has agreed to pay, according to city officials.
“I think the city should make it extremely easy for people to get these records,” Blackler said.
Laura Howe wanted to see city e-mail exchanges during meetings about two developments in her neighborhood. In an e-mail from the city, she learned officials did not know if the records were available. If they were, though, she would have to pay for 20 hours of research at $10 an hour.
“Well, do you have the information? Or not?” Howe said. “It just seemed really discombobulated.”
Howe said she understands that public agencies function on limited resources. But the bill seemed too high and the research time inordinate to fulfill her narrow request.
“I understand that public requests take time, but I thought it was excessive,” Howe said.
By law, however, the city is allowed to recoup reasonable costs of providing documents to the public. The city provides citizens half an hour of research time at no cost, and thereafter charges $10 an hour, Rehbein said.
She said people have made requests that require researching backup tapes, which involves many staff hours at a time when the information technology department is short a person. So when people have made extensive requests, the city has asked for a deposit up front of half the estimated cost.
Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Bender said providing e-mail records is complicated by legal ramifications as well.
“The difficult ones are those individual e-mails,” Bender said.
He said a lot of his electronic correspondence includes private medical information from firefighters out on medical calls, or even information about criminal investigations before they result in charges. So the city needs to review communications before releasing them to the public to ensure it's not violating privacy rights, he said.
“It's very, very burdensome,” Bender said of fulfilling requests for electronic records.
But he said the city is clarifying its processes. City Attorney Jim Nugent has long told elected ward representatives to enter into the public record information that influences their decisions, in particular in areas of land use. In some cases, that means a council member announces during a public meeting a grocery store encounter with a constituent, for example, Rehbein said.
And to keep the record straight, city officials said councilors also must record pertinent ideas coming to them through cyberspace. They can continue to make announcements at public meetings, where staff members record minutes later available online. They also can forward e-mails to all council members, as the city has considered messages sent to all members, or “group,” part of its permanent public record already available at City Hall (and soon posted on the city Web site).
“It really becomes a matter of instructing Council,” Bender said.
And he and Rehbein said the goal is to make the system more seamless.
“The Council I expect will work more on that issue,” Rehbein said.
Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262 or at keila.szpaller@missoulian.com
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