Nashville attorney Allan D. Johnson talks to Business TN about open records in the digital age:
BTN: The public records law was passed in the 1950s when a record was a piece of paper in a file cabinet. Comment on areas where technology has run far ahead of the law, like e-mails as public records?Johnson: The courts are coming to grips with this, but it has taken a while. One thing to bear in mind is that the Public Records Act really deals with public information. It does not matter whether the information is stored on paper in a file cabinet, or electronically in a computer. If it was made or received in connection with the transaction of official business, it is a public record.
Larger City and County governments are getting better at this. Here in Shelby County, both the City and County governments are working hard to make sure documents from Council and Commission meetings are published online in a timely fashion. The bigger issue is other documents that people may not have as much knowledge of, and as Johnson notes, email correspondence using government computers and email accounts. These are sticky situations that the courts will likely have to decide.
Still, nothing restores faith in government more than the knowledge that documents are readily available, even if the information is bad news for the way government is performing. At least then the public can react and demand better.