Jacksonville's ethics officer has instructed city employees to start saving text messages in order to comply with state record laws, but the city's top lawyer has countermanded the directive, saying texts don't rise to the level of importance that requires retention.
Texts should only be used for "transitory communications" that can be safely deleted, not for significant discussions that would need to be kept under the state's Sunshine Laws, General Counsel Cindy Laquidara said.
Text messages have never been retained by the city, although other government entities — in Florida and elsewhere — have deemed them public records.
The directive to begin archiving the messages came from the city's ethics commission, which discussed the issue during a Monday night committee meeting.
Text messages have fallen into a sort of gray area when it comes to preserving them: Although emails are saved and provided for review, texts have been treated more like phone calls, which aren't saved.
The state's thinking, though, has changed, according to current and former members of the Attorney General's Office who serve on the ethics commission, said Carla Miller, director of the city's Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight.
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