To the editor:

Bainbridge Island recently settled a lawsuit brought by two of our citizens claiming that the city violated the Washington Public Records act. The suit involved delays and ultimately failure of two members of the council to produce email messages that they had received concerning city business on their personal email accounts.

This suit was a very expensive lesson. The money spent should have been used for a constructive purpose for our city. Since the taxpayers won’t see any tangible benefit from these tax dollars, they are at least entitled to some comment. So here goes:

1. The use of personal email accounts for city business was against city policy. This suit demonstrated clearly the problems that can result, and the city has tightened procedures to ensure that everyone doing business on behalf of the city has access to and knows they must use a city email account.

2. This suit could have been settled much earlier and cheaper but for the insistence by the involved council members that their Constitutional right to privacy was paramount to their obligation to the city. I will ask the council to take steps to ensure that council members agree that service to the city requires a reasonable limitation on that claim to privacy.

3. Compliance with the Public Records Act and the Open Meetings Act are at the core of the city’s obligation to provide good, transparent service to the community. The citizens who brought this recent lawsuit performed an invaluable service to the community at great personal expense.  Bob Fortner and Althea Paulson should be thanked for insisting that the City be held to account.

VAL TOLLEFSON

City Council, North Ward