A public records request turned into a heated exchange at Tuesday’s county commission meeting. District one County Commissioner Pinki Jackel became upset at Kevin Begos because of a request he has made for e-mails from Commissioners Jackel and Commissioner Cheryl Sanders. Begos is the head of the Franklin County Oyster and Seafood Industry Task Force, but he said his public records request was made as a private citizen. Begos has asked for all e-mails from Cheryl Sanders from January 2008 to September of this year that deal with the Franklin County Seafood Workers Association – he is also seeking all government related e-mails from both commissioners from August through September of this year. Commissioner Jackel asked Begos why he is targeting those two commissioners; she said fulfilling the request is taking up hours of her time and is costing her money in ink cartridges. Mister Begos said he has the right as a public citizen to request these public records, and pointed out that Commissioner Jackel was actually violating the law by asking why he wants the information. Mister Begos added that he had asked for the e-mails in digital format do that they didn’t have to be printed. Part of the disagreement between the two may be that Franklin County does not have a policy in place to deal with public records requests as they pertain to e-mails. That, however, may change soon. County attorney Michael Shuler presented the board with a technology policy on Tuesday which the board is now considering – that policy should spell out how government e-mails are handled and stored so that the public has access to them. The county commission will decide whether to adopt the policy at a future commission meeting.
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