Thousands of unfiltered New Orleans City Council emails given to activist lawyer
From Sunshine Review
6 March 2009
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In what Louisiana Mayor Ray Nagin described as an "unusual" but not unprecedented move, city Sanitation Director Veronica White handed over thousands of city council emails to activist lawyer Tracie Washington without any knowledge of the city attorney, who normally handles public records requests. Washington had planned on putting the documents on a website, but a judge has issued a temporary restraining order against their distribution or publication.[1]
This comes at the same time that the Nagin administration was unable to fulfill a public records request for its emails, saying lack of storage forced them to delete all but about a dozen emails from 2008.
[edit] Records request
On December 3, 2008, Washington sent a public records request for council emails to the city's Management Information Systems Office, instead of the city attorney's office, who usually handles such requests. A letter from City Attorney Penya Moses-Field said that Veronica White then asked staff of the Mayor's Office of Technology to provide her with the emails, which she then gave to Washington.[2]
Moses-Fields said, "This is very unusual and outside of the normal process which includes review by the city attorney." The original records request sought e-mails dating back to July 1, 2006, from council members Jackie Clarkson, Arnie Fielkow, Stacy Head and Shelley Midura, along with their staff. Washington also requested records from Jeff Thomas, special assistant to Recovery Director Ed Blakely.[1]
Attorney for the council reiterated Moses-Field's statement, "In 30 years of practicing law, I don't know that I've seen a procedure whereby a nonattorney -- in this case the director of sanitation -- would produce documents of the City Council that are subject to privilege without some oversight and without somebody just saying to the City Council: 'We got this document request. How do you want to handle it?'"[1]
[edit] Legal breach?
The council, who were unaware of the request until this week, is very concerned about the legality of the action and release of protected information. In a statement released Tuesday, the council said the release of the emails "may constitute a serious breach of legal rights and protections afforded the City Council, its constituents and the city of New Orleans."
Washington, they say, was given the e-mail without their "knowledge or consent and without prior review of the content for information of a privileged and confidential nature." To that end, the council said the emails could include attorney-client communications, personal information of constituents, information on pending litigation and federal investigations, as well as personal information of council members.[1]
Cynthia Hedge-Morrell said they should have the opportunity to redact private and privileged information, providing an example: "Last year, when I was having my medical problems, on my calendar was all the doctors appointments, and in some cases we listed what procedure was going to be done."[3]
[edit] Butting heads
Both Washington and White have butted heads with the council in the past, sometimes in dramatic fashion. Washington has been a vocal critic of the council, especially in its decision to demolish four public housing developments.
White made headlines last November when she stormed out of a city council meeting after member Stacy Head said she had emails to prove White had lied about information on garbage pickup that the sanitation director said she did not have. Nagin defended White, accusing Head of "profanity" and "race-baiting remarks."[1]
[edit] Nagin Responds
In response to the current situation, Mayor Nagin said Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield is looking into the matter and will decide if any disciplinary action should be taken. He said the situation was not "unusual" and that the media is blowing it all out of proportion. "We get a tremendous amount of e-mail requests," the Mayor said, "The norm is for it to go through the city attorney's office. But every now and then that doesn't happen."[4]
When asked about why the city was able to easily produce thousands of council emails but his own, Nagin responded, "Why is it fishy? Why isn't there a legitimate reason? Why am I always put in a position that I'm doing something wrong?" he asked. "Here's the quick answer. The city has two servers. One is mayorofno.com, the one is cityofno.com. The council is on cityofno.com. Mayorofno.com ran into some storage issues. It was a temporary problem, the problem has been fixed, and you can have my e-mails now, as many as you like."[4]
[edit] Injunction
The council was awarded a temporary injunction against the distribution or publication of the emails, with a full hearing scheduled for March 12. Washington had planned on publishing the emails on the website nolapublicrecords.org, set up for her organization, the Louisiana Justice Institute.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 The Times-Picayune, City sanitation director hands over thousands of council e-mails to activist lawyer, March 3, 2009
- ↑ WWL-TV, Sanitation director gave council e-mails to lawyer; council files restraining order, March 4, 2009
- ↑ WWL-TV, Council considers setting up own e-mail server to protect privacy, March 6, 2009
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Times-Picayune, Mayor Ray Nagin reacts to e-mail controversy; says transparency a two-way street, March 5, 2009
