Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 12:44:05 -0400 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: Public Access to Gov't Email & Open Meetings To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
From: "Patrice McDermott" <patricem@ombwatch.org> To: "US e-government policy listserv" <e-gov@lyris.ombwatch.org> Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 16:42:24 -0400 Subject: (Fwd) Email and open meetings
------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 10 May 2001 12:32:30 -0400
Subject: Eail and open meetings
This appeared in this morning's Washington Post. Full story at --
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6447-2001May9.html
-pkm
Loudoun Unplugs E-Mail on Rezoning Board Tries to Avoid Sunshine Law Issues By Michael Laris Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 10, 2001; Page B01
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has sworn off using e-mail to discuss its plans to slow growth, arguing that it is better to sacrifice the ease of the Internet than risk accusations that it is skirting open-government laws. As government bureaucracies replace their stacks of memorandums with flurries of e-mail, officials from Minnesota to the White House have been struggling to deal with issues of public access, what constitutes a meeting, and privacy. For instance, President Bush said last month that he has stopped e- mailing his daughters and his father because of privacy concerns. In Loudoun, home to America Online and many of the computer warehouses that sort the nation's Internet taffic, supervisors say they don't want their slow-growth plans sidetracked by a debate over when it's appropriate to e-mail each other about public business. But scholars studying the impact of the Internet on public life say e-mail is just one of many technologies that have the potential to transform the way the nation is governed. Practical debates over how electronic communication affects democracy are already raging, whether officials are ready for them or not, they said. ...
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