HomeMy WebLinkAbout104-Staff report for Initial Policy (July 2009).pdfPage 1 of 2
SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL
MEETING DATE: July 1, 2009 AGENDA ITEM:
DEPARTMENT: City Attorney CITY MANAGER: Dave Anderson
PREPARED BY: Richard Taylor DIRECTOR: Richard Taylor
SUBJECT: City Council and Commissions’ Electronic Communications Policy
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Discuss the draft City Council and Commissions’ Electronic
Communications Policy and provide direction to staff.
REPORT SUMMARY:
City communications increasingly occur through electronic means. Over the years the City has
followed various formal and informal procedures for effective use of electronic communications. The
attached draft policy seeks to collect and coordinate those procedures into a single policy document for
use by the City Council and City Commissions. While the primary objective of the draft policy is to
promote effective use of electronic communications in conducting City business, an important secondary
purpose is to create a system that allows compliance with state and federal laws governing electronic
communications. Those laws include the Records Retention Act, the Public Records Act, the Brown Act,
and state and federal rules of evidence. The attached policy facilitates compliance with those laws by the
City, Council members, and Commissioners.
Under the policy, the City would issue e-mail addresses to all Commissioners and Council
members (currently only the Council and Planning Commission have e-mail addresses). These addresses
would be used for all City business. Personal business via City e-mail would be prohibited. The policy
includes straightforward guidelines for use of City e-mail and the internet in a manner that does not
violate the Brown Act or other laws (e.g., no policy discussions among Council members or
Commissioners via e-mail or internet forums). The policy is drafted in a manner that applies to any type
of electronic communication account issued by the City. If the City develops tools other than e-mail
(e.g., instant messaging) the policy would apply to use of those tools as well.
The policy also formalizes existing procedures for responding to e-mails from the public
addressed to the Council or a Commission as a whole and for responding to e-mails to less than a
quorum. It also establishes as formal policy for all Commissions the existing practice for Council and
Planning Commission of posting all agendas and minutes on the City website.
Finally, the policy addresses two relatively new matters. The first concerns use of e-mail during
Council or Commission meetings. With increasing use of laptops for notes and paperless agendas there
is a potential for use of e-mail during the meeting. To assure the public that their decision-makers are
considering only the public information presented at the meeting the policy makes clear that e-mail may
not be used by a decision-maker during a meeting. The second new matters concerns e-mail retention.
Historically the City has printed all substantive e-mail for archival purposes. The City now has the
capacity to electronically archive e-mails without printing. This is reflected in the policy.
Page 2 of 2
FISCAL IMPACTS: None significant. There will be some staff time involved in establishing user
accounts for all Commissioners and in Commissioner training but these costs will be offset in the long
run through more effective recordkeeping and resident services.
FOLLOW UP ACTION:
The City Attorney will finalize the policy to reflect direction from Council and the policy will be
set for formal adoption at a future Council meeting.
ADVERTISING, NOTICING AND PUBLIC CONTACT:
Notice for this meeting.
ATTACHMENTS:
Draft City Council and Commission Electronic Communications Policy