EDITORIAL: E-mail flap reveals the New Orleans City Council's faux transparency
Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Many New Orleanians have grown skeptical of the City Council's objections to releasing thousands of its e-mails because they may include legally-protected information.

After three e-mails from Councilwoman Stacy Head were briefly made public Wednesday, one thing is clear: The council and its attorneys are trying to keep legitimate public records under wraps simply because they may be embarrassing or offensive. Saving public officials from their own words, however, is not one of the exceptions in the open records law. If the council truly favors transparency, it should stop fighting the release of records to which all Louisianians are clearly entitled. The state Supreme Court is considering the council's latest appeal, and the court should order the release of the e-mails.

Council attorney Steven Lane, however, argued Thursday that the public is only entitled to get "e-mails having to do with City of New Orleans business and the duties of a council member." That's not what the law says, and Mr. Lane's argument wouldn't fly even in moot court. Referring to Ms. Head's e-mails, Mr. Lane also said that "personal matters are protected" under the law. The law prevents disclosure of confidential information like Social Security numbers, medical records and personnel evaluations. None of Ms. Head's e-mails made public Wednesday included protected information.

Steven Lane, attorney for the New Orleans City Council. Mr. Lane insisted that the council favors transparency. Yet the Nagin administration on April 21 sent council attorneys more than 400,000 e-mails for their review. Not one had been released to the public as of Thursday, though surely thousands of those e-mails could have been made public already.