When public officials use their personal Gmail accounts to conduct state agency business, are those accounts available to the public? There is a question whether using personal accounts and devices employed to communicate an agency’s business constitute “public documents” in California, according to an article on the California Public Agency Labor & Employment Blog by David Urban, of counsel at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore.
This question is before the California Supreme Court, he said. Public records under the California Public Records Act are defined as, “any writing[s] containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics,” reported Urban. There are some exceptions under the act, such as documents involving pending litigation subject to attorney-client privilege or contain personnel information.
