Its all in a Text

As many of you know, I like to focus on the things happening behind the scenes. This involves A LOT of public records requests. It involves 1000's of documents. For the Right Rudder issue alone, I have over 4,000 emails, texts, phone logs, etc. Trust me, it is A LOT.

One thing that has stood out to me is how often commissioners use their personal cellular devices. This is a HUGE potential problem, especially here in Florida where public records laws cover pretty much everything. Certainly good for the people to have access to these records, but the personal devices may create problems. Let's dive into it.

Everyone knows that the county pays for each commissioner to have a county provided phone. What you may not know is that the county also provides many staffers with phones as well. This costs tax payers thousands of dollars a year in cell phone services. We are no longer living in the stone age and cell phones are our way of life. If a staffer needs to be reached while out of the office, they can be reached on their county device. Makes things more efficient. Good right? Here is where things get interesting.

The county has disabled the text message feature from these devices (including the commissioner's devices). I am told they (the county) do not want staff to text on these devices, even if its only used for county business and not things of a personal nature. The reason given is that they (the county) do not have a way to capture those text messages to preserve for public record. That seems to be a pretty easy fix as there is specialized software for that very reason, but that is why there is no texting on county devices. The county wants everything done via email or phone call. That is great for us because we can read those emails (most of them) or view those call logs to see who they are talking to (although you would have no idea on the topic of the conversation).

But that has created a "problem". I have found A LOT of text messages being sent/received by commissioners regarding county business, but since they cannot do it on their county devices, they use their personal devices. Ok, commissioners communicating by text with others regarding their jobs as commissioners... what is the big deal?

The main issue is transparency. Public records laws cover just about EVERYTHING a commissioner would talk to someone about. Importantly, this applies to ANY device the commissioners use, not just the county devices. Emails make it easy for the county records custodian (who does a great job by the way) to keep them filed and available for those that ask.

But text messages on personal devices? The custodian obviously does not have access to the personal cell phones of county commissioners, so those commissioners are supposed to turn over their texts as they get them. They are told to take a screenshot of the text and then email it to their BOCC email address for records keeping. Same goes for emails sent to their personal accounts instead of their BOCC accounts.

How many do you think have done that or do that routinely (I have never come across it happening once)? The problem with all this is if someone asks for a text message regarding a topic, the records custodian has to go to the commissioner, ask them if there are any texts and then wait for them to send them in. Sometimes, they tell the custodian that it will take longer than 15mins to gather the records and then the county can charge the individual.

The second problem is that people who watch local government generally don't ask to see text message communication. They generally only ask for email communications. Knowing this, many commissioners have moved from email to texts. Text is also a far more common way to communicate than email. Its also faster and more convenient, so can't really blame them for not wanting to move on from the archaic form of communication, but since people do not know to ask for texts, a lot of what they communicate is never seen. Makes watching government far more difficult.

The third problem is that we have to trust that the commissioners are being honest and following the law. Since there is no record of the text message other than what they provide, how do citizens know that what they provided is the full message? What if they are hiding texts that they don't want to get out? Its an easy way to hide potential issues and do things in the dark. Cant hide things in a BOCC email.

Now, that is not to say that these particular commissioners are hiding things, but I have found several violations of public records laws. For instance, I found an email that referenced a message, so when asking for the message via a records request, I was told that the message did not exist, when I know that it did because I have it in email. Maybe this person forgot they sent the message in question since it was over a year ago... fair... but what else is potentially "forgotten".

You can see how this can be an issue for the commissioners and potentially the county. Back in January, someone in Seminole county sued the county over text messages that commissioners didnt turn over promptly and in full. There have been other instances throughout the state as well. So this issue has potential to cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in public records lawsuits.

That is A LOT of pressure on commissioners to follow every aspect of the public records laws and not "forget" things when asked for them. Sure, the easy solution is "Dont text about county business", but in practice, much more difficult.

What I would like to see, is I would like the county to pass and ordinance, regulation or whatever term Ms Lyn would use, to guide text message usage. This would allow commissioners and staff to use their county devices for text messages. This would involve the county utilizing the software that would capture the text messages and archive them similar to emails. Everything is archived automatically and can easily be provided upon request. This would allow staff to communicate more efficiently via text and come back from the stone age. This would remove the need to do this on personal devices that are not archived.

But more importantly, we would need something to ban the use of personal devices for county business. Why is the county paying for a device for commissioners if they rarely use them? ALL communication should be through the county device. That is transparency. Pass an ordinance that would result in that commissioner being referred to the state for malfeasance if they fail to abide by the policy. This can result in removal from office.

ALL government should be done in a manner that shows transparency. It is time that we close the text message loophole and bring the county into current times.