E-mail Practices Block Access
by Stephen Largen - News Star (excerpt)

The issue of how the governmental bodies handle e-mail messages related to public business arose when The News-Star asked the about the availability of the e-mails of Monroe City Council members Robert "Red" Stevens and Arthur Gilmore, both of whom are under federal indictment on corruption charges.

City spokesman Rod Washington informed the newspaper that Monroe's council members do not use city e-mail accounts that would store messages on the city's servers. By using private e-mail accounts for any form of public business, even basic constituent interactions, there is no oversight of the accounts, and attempts to obtain records are complicated.

Without access to officials' e-mail accounts, it's impossible to track a significant aspect of their public work. On Monroe's website, users are directed to contact council members Jay Marx, Stevens and Gilmore with public business at AOL, MSN and Yahoo e-mail accounts, respectively.