Just how private are private e-mail accounts? That’s become a hot issue in New York. For good reason: It’s a convenient way for government officials to avoid creating a public record of what they are doing.
The latest accusations have been lodged against Mayor Bloomberg. A recent DNAinfo New York story reported that the mayor and an unnamed deputy mayor have been discussing city matters via private e-mail accounts from the mayor’s private business, Bloomberg L.P.
It’s unclear how often this kind of private correspondence has taken place between the mayor and his inner circle. But we agree with civil-rights lawyer Norman Siegel, who was quoted as saying that it amounts to “an end-run around public access to public documents.”
In Bloomberg’s case, it represents a further fudging of the line between public and private. In June, we learned that one of his private pet projects — his advocacy gun-control group, Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns — was using New York City government servers and staffers to host the group’s Web site.
That raised the opposite question: Why was a private Web site effectively being run and underwritten by the city’s government?
And Bloomberg’s e-mail shenanigans are not even the most serious. That distinction plainly belongs to former governor and failed candidate for city comptroller, Eliot Spitzer.
Right now, Spitzer’s e-mails are at the heart of ongoing litigation about his efforts, as attorney general, against the American International Group. The company’s former chief financial officer, Howard Smith, claims Spitzer’s pursuit of AIG had more to do with a personal vendetta than any violation of law. He further claims Spitzer’s private e-mails would show this.
A New York judge ordered the Spitzer e-mails turned over under the Freedom of Information Act, pointing out that there’s “no dispute” that Spitzer had used his private e-mails to conduct official business before — and that if politicians can escape transparency simply by doing their work over private accounts, the public’s right to know will amount to nothing.
We’re with the judge. God help us if we allow our pols to hide their nastiest work simply by resorting to private e-mail accounts.
If politicians want us to respect their private correspondence, it’s up to them not to use their private, personal accounts to conduct their public business.