Detroit Mayor's Directive: Electronic Communications Public

Now Words Come Back to the Fore

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Detroit Mayor's Directive: Electronic Communications Public

Story Published: Feb 26, 2008 at 9:05 PM EDT

Story Updated: Feb 26, 2008 at 9:05 PM EDT

he line that was penned in a kids Forget-Me-Not book says, “Be Sure the words you speak are sweet, because sometimes those words you may have to eat”. In this case it’s the written word, and the words are those of the mayor during his first term in office.

When K’wame Kilpatrick first became the mayor of Detroit, he approved a directive to his staff saying that all electronic communications sent on city equipment should be considered public.

Details of the memo directed at city staff, were released in the Detroit News - who along with the Detroit Free Press - are suing the city under the Public Information Act for details that are included in those messages. At this point the State Supreme Court is considering whether to hear an appeal by Mayor Kilpatrick to keep documents related to the text-messaging scandal sealed.

The documents in question include references to intimate and sexually explicit text messages involving the second-term mayor and his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty.

Kilpatrick’s spokesman James Canning said the 1998 directive doesn't apply to text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, since they were sent on leased and not city-owned devices. The memo referred to computers, the only form of City of Detroit electronic communications at the time.

The city's policy has never been updated to reflect hand held devices, according to the statement by the city.

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