Several Port Orchard City Council members expressed their concerns over a recent decision by Mayor Tim Matthes regarding their email accounts during the Dec. 16 work study session.

Matthes directed staff that all city employees are required to correspond with elected officials using city-assigned email accounts.

Matthes said he was concerned about public records act violations after Bainbridge Island settled a nearly $500,000 lawsuit and the resignation of a council member.

“It was levied against them because council members used their personal email accounts and the city was not able to produce the emails to comply,” Matthes said.

He said eight months ago that the council said they prefer to use their personal email accounts.

“That’s not an accurate statement,” said Councilman Rob Pataansuu. “We all said the system we have is arcaic and we wanted to use our own personal devices.”

Matthes said he doesn’t see the problem.

“I see a lot of resistance to change,” he said.

Councilman Jeff Cartwright said he has a concern with the mayor’s recent action.

“What this tells me is before you had a solution and the council had an opportunity to weigh in on it, you directed staff where to send emails rather than where we want our emails to be sent,” Cartwright said.

“Yes, I did,” Matthes said.

“So, we do not have the information coming to us that we need,” Cartwright said.

“Actually, it’s coming to your city email account,” the mayor said.

“But it’s not coming to us,” Cartwright said. “You know full well some of us don’t access our city email account.”

Cartwright claims the mayor made a decision without the council’s input to cut off communication from the council.

“No, I didn’t cut any communications off,” Matthes said. “You have access to it, you just refuse to use it, councilman. You refuse to use it and I don’t know why you refuse to use it.”

Cartwright said in the Bainbridge Island incident, it was his understanding that it wasn’t because council members were using private email, but because they refused to give up their hard drives or devises as evidence.

“It was able to do this because of my authority as mayor,” Matthes said. “And I did. That’s the end of the story. There is no debate.”

Councilwoman Cindy Lucarelli said the big issue was responding to emails.

“If we are not responding on our personal emails, there should be no problem,” she said. “If this is what you are reducing us to, working with a system that has been difficult, then I am going to ask that every single email actually be printed and put into my box. Every email.”

Councilman Fred Chang agreed with Lucarelli’s request, along with other council members.

“I don’t think it would be a bad idea until the new system is up and running,” he said. “It sounds in the interim, a lot of us will not be able to get communications that we would normally get.”

Lucarelli said the mayor sent emails to the city accounts that aren’t being used.

“We have information already we can’t access because you made a policy change,“ she told Matthes. “I do not think that is your job. It is your job to get us the information we need so that we can do our jobs and not make it difficult.”

“It’s my responsibility and I took it,” Matthes said. “The problem with this, you don’t get sued individually, the city does.”

Chang said the council doesn’t want the city to pay out $500,000 as Bainbridge Island did. He said the issue in Bainbridge Island is different.

“It could be a little different,” Matthes said.

“Your action may be a good one, but a little too abruptly,“ Chang said. “That is where we have concerns.“

“After talking to attorneys I’m scared,” Matthes said. “Frankly, I’m scared if I don’t do it. Once I realized what the potential damage could be, I’m responsible.”

Several council members asked the mayor why Interim City Attorney Carol Morris was not present at the meeting.

“She’s at another council meeting,” said the mayor.

Councilwoman Bek Ashby said there was nothing wrong with the current system regarding emails.

“Most of the emails I get, go to my city account and my personal email account so I can see them at either place,” she said. “If I need to respond, I go to the city account.”

Ashby said all of the mayor’s litigation concerns are “being taken care of” because emails are being sent to both personal and city accounts.

Putaansuu said if a council member responds from their personal email account, the directive was to copy it to the council member’s email account.

“This creates a public record,” he said.

Cartwright, who worked for Kitsap Transit, said if we responds to an email about city business to city staff at work, it is on the city server.

“There was no need for me not to get information on Monday afternoon because staff was directed to always send to the city email account,” Cartwright said. “That is my issue.”

He said the council was working under the assumption that emails needed to be copied to the city clerk or council member’s city email account.

“The problem is, wherever it goes from the private or business email account, we don’t have access to it,” Matthes said.

Cartwright disagreed.

“You do,” he said. “You just heard multiple council members say that we have been working on an interim basis that if we do city business on a personal email account that it goes to the city server by copying the email to our city account or using our city account.”

Cartwright said he’s upset with the mayor’s recent actions.

“It does upset me, Mr. Mayor, for me to get a phone call late on a Monday that information that is supposed to be sent to me as chair of the Ad Hoc Committee for the city attorney selection process was not sent to me during the normal course that we have been operating under the past year.

“You made a decision that affected communication of a council member. That’s not right.”

Cartwright said the mayor could have brought the matter before council and gave the council an opportunity for input.

“You made a unilateral decision to cut us off at the knees to do it you way or no way,” he said. “And we still don’t have the application we asked for eight months ago. That’s not working with the council, Mr. Mayor. That is absolutely not working with us.“

“Sorry the council wasn’t working with me either for eight months,” Matthes said.

Chang suggested that during the next three weeks, email be spent to the council member’s personal, business and city email account. He also noted the council has provided their emails for all public records requests that have been presented.

Putaansuu said the council is complying with Public Records Act by copying emails to their city email accounts, which creates a record.

“If the city staff sends us a question and we respond to it, the city has a copy of it,” Councilman John Clauson said.

Putaansuu asked City Clerk Brandy Rinearson if the council was complying with the Public Records Act, if a copy of the email is sent to the city.

Rinearson said it was as long as someone didn’t request the metadata.

“If they request the metadata, then you are not in compliance because we have to get the metadata from the server the email was sent from,” she said.

“Historically, you sent out an email for a public records request and if we have them, we send them to you,” Clauson told Rinearson. “So where are we not in compliance?”

“We don’t have the city attorney to tell us,” Councilman Jerry Childs said.

Vince Tucker, the city’s information specialist, said there is a software application that can be installed onto the council member’s personal electronic device so they can access their city email account.

The Moss360 application will cost $2,000 annually for 25 licenses.