A.G. Gancarski
Ideas have consequences, goes the maxim. So does, it turns out, texting on budget night. Consequences including media and internal scrutiny, and, in Jacksonville, a special committee on electronic communications.
The committee, chaired by Councilman Sam Newby, was charged with looking at Council policy regarding electronic communication, and exploring storage options for archived text messages, and analogs in other present and future technologies.
Texting has been an issue with this Council since September 2015, when members texted with the Fire Union Chief on budget night before deciding to move $330,000 from storm water project funds to paying for safety officers.
A lawsuit resulted, which many Council respondents have settled. As well, a piece of legislation from Councilman Bill Gulliford, which he described previously as boiling down to this: “if you get a text on a particular item, you don’t respond to it, and you report it within 48 hours. This way we can be big boys and girls and turn our phones back on.”
Also to be discussed is a Council rule, established by Council President Greg Anderson, which discourages Council members from replying to texts of lobbyists, also requiring 48-hour disclosure.
The policy boils down to “don’t do it … don’t respond … disclose it within 48 hours,” said Anderson, who added the policy was “specifically designated [for] text messaging,” given that there’s an email process in place already.
City employees are compelled to forward any city business emails received at alternate email addresses to their official city emails, to satisfy Sunshine Law provisions.
Anderson noted there was a general preference for “policy rather than legislation,” adding that improvement was possible, especially in the realm of “potential technology solutions.”
Newby’s Council aide noted, meanwhile, that there would be three meetings to discuss Jacksonville ordinance and ordinances established in other cities, as a way of formulating a way forward.
Ethics Director Carla Miller prioritized “simplicity,” saying that archiving should be “automatic, simple, and not very complex.”
Miller then distributed a memo outlining options to resolve the issue, including city-issued cellphones, such as in Hillsborough County, or city-mandated retention programs, such as TextGuard, used in Orange County.
Other counties have multiple cities (Palm Beach has 38), each with their own policies.
Only eight counties in Florida don’t have policies related to texting, according to the oral summary of the memo. Duval County is one. And thus, the electronic communications committee is necessary.
“If we can institute a policy,” Miller said, “we’ll be ahead of the pack.”
Peggy Sidman of the Office of General Counsel clarified, in discussion, that any communication to a public official is a public record, though Miller observed that State Attorney Angela Corey carved out an exception for “transitory messages” in response to a recent media public records request.
Anderson broadened the discussion, saying that a proactive “policy, as opposed to legislation” should exist, as electronic communication continually evolves.
Sidman noted that “you can come up with policies all day long,” but implementation is the key piece.
Committee members, such as Garrett Dennis, expressed concerns about an immutable ordinance when “things are changing,” suggesting that each President should lay out a communications policy annually. Chairman Newby agreed, saying “technology changes every year.”
Councilman Aaron Bowman posed the question: “two years ago, who heard of Snapchat?”
Sidman expanded the discussion to include Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, but did not, alas, mention Tinder … which would seemingly open the door to “swipe right for a yes vote.”
Another suggestion: disclaimers on personal or Public Figure Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, saying that all written communication must come through official channels.
Two meetings follow this one.
