MetroPulse Accounts

Other than vague references to the ORA and the Constitution, I don't see any actual laws referenced in this article. I found it curious that you would question Mr. Gibson's "understanding" of the subject without a greater basis than mere opinion. I don't have a dog in the fight, but decided to look it up.

Without going into all the citations, the Open Records Act defines a county public record as all documents, papers and records in all county offices, including county commission. The Act tasks CTAS with creating a retention schedule for records. The CTAS manual "Records Management for County Governments" states, in part, as follows:

"The retention schedule entry for Correspondence Files (see entry 15-010) recommends keeping correspondence with citizens or government officials regarding policy
and procedures or program administration for five years. This standard should apply whether the correspondence is by traditional “snail mail” or e-mail."

And the following is from the County Commission's E-Mail Policy, found at http://www.knoxcounty.org/commission/.... "Any personal information submitted through forms or email from the user is considered public information and may be subject to inspection upon request as governed by the Tennessee Open Records Act, Tenn. Code Ann. Section 10-7-503." This disclosure trumps any constitutional privacy interest, because the citizen is informed that the e-mail is "public information."

And, the Commission's web site does not disclose Ms. DeFreese's personal e-mail address, or any e-mail address, but rather allows you to send a direct e-mail to her from their web page. There can be no question that any e-mails received through that web site are public record.

Dollar to a donut that if the State AG were to issue an opinion for Ms. DeFreese, you would see the above language quoted, along with a finding that she must disclose. I only spent 30 minutes looking this up, but my bet is that Mr. Gibson knows what he's talking about.