FOIA & gadgets

Read today's story in the Loudoun Times mirror about a local FOIA lawsuit. FOIA is short for Freedom of Information Act, which is actually the federal statue, I don't think Virginia's law (the one at issue in the case) is called that. I'll let you in on an unintended consequence of that lawsuit... most of the School Board members have been issued new laptop PCs and Blackberries at our request, myself included. I'll explain why.

The implications of the FOIA case are that any computer I have that stores emails or documents that might have some relevance to school business can be seized and explored by someone the court appoints to determine what is and is not in the public domain. In the past, I and my colleagues have used our personal computers to create and store documents, personal email accounts to correspond with constituents, staff and colleagues, and my cell phone to keep up with emails. Under some interpretations of the law, any of these could now be taken from me to be combed through.

So now we'll be drafting and keeping these documents on notebook PCs payed for by tax dollars, talking and tracking emails on cell phones payed for by tax dollars, and using the county's email system for all School Board-related emails. I'm not happy about a second phone on my belt, yet another briefcase carried with me, or the money that could have provided the laptop upon which I'm writing this post to a classroom instead. But this way, if the court somebody wants to go through one of these devices I'll just hand it over and not worry about it.

Once again, these are the unintended consequences of the rise of antagonism in public service.