“Sunshine tech team” gets PIN lessons Wednesday
by Dara Kam | October 12th, 2009What’s a high-tech public servant to do when tweets, PINs or texts clash with Florida’ broad public records laws?
Get schooled.
That’s what Attorney General Bill McCollum’s is aiming for with a new task force designed to aid elected officials and their staff navigate in the Sunshine in a world where old-fashioned telephone calls are nearly obsolete.
McCollum, whose office is in charge of ensuring that elected officials comply with the state’s open records laws, created the task force last month in the wake of reports that Public Service Commission staff were using the BlackBerry PIN codes to swap secret messages with workers at the utilities the PSC oversees.
McCollum’s Sunshine Technology Team, headed by the attorney general’s top lieutenant Joe Jacquot, will be briefed at its first meeting Wednesday afternoon by Research in Motion, the Canadian computer company that makes the BlackBerry operating system.
The tech team includes a handful of state agencies’ open government liaisons as well as open records advocates such as Sharyn Smith, a former assistant attorney general who litigated landmark public records and open meetings cases for former Attorney General Robert Shevin.
Tags: Bill McCollum, Blackberry, PIN, Sharyn Smith, text messages
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