Government officials, from the president’s advisers to mayors of the smallest towns, should know the rules about conducting business by email.
At the federal level, those who violate protocol by using private servers or personal email accounts instead of government accounts risk losing the public’s confidence or, worse yet, creating a risky situation on matters of national security.
At a local level, it’s all about transparency and accountability to the public, though some in Illinois act as if they don’t get it.
EDITORIAL
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Defense Secretary Ash Carter is the latest high-ranking federal official to stumble, acknowledging use of a private, unsecured email account for some official business. That’s embarrassing for the White House, especially since the Department of Defense oversees cyber security. Carter insists he did not put classified information at risk, but that doesn’t make us feel any better about it. He continued to use personal email even after the firestorm generated by the revelation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server for official business when she served as secretary of state.
Use of private email by public officials is like a contagious disease in Illinois. The Better Government Association has filed suit to force Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be more transparent about emails involving city business from accounts not belonging to the city. The Chicago Tribune also has a lawsuit against the city that accuses the mayor of refusing to release correspondence about city business in private emails and text messages.
Top aides to Gov. Bruce Rauner have used private email for official business. Illinois Education Secretary Beth Purvis used private email to discuss education policy with outside consultants and fought a Chicago Sun-Times Freedom of Information request before releasing many files. Later, we learned from the BGA that Nancy Kimme, a former aide to the late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka and a member of Rauner’s transition team, used private email for public business. She told the BGA that “it wasn’t an effort to get around anything.”
But government officials shouldn’t leave us guessing about whether they have something to hide. We know a former chancellor at the University of Illinois, Phyllis Wise, used private email to keep correspondence out of public view. Ultimately, it backfired. The university released her emails and she lost her job.
When public officials use personal email and phones for public business, they are no less accountable to the public. Officials must make such emails readily available when requested by the public. Better yet, they should rely on government-issued phones and email accounts to dodge a sticky mess.
Someone send these people an email: This practice has to end.
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