From Hews Media Group-Community News:
A Northern California judge has ruled that private text messages, emails and other electronic communications sent and received by San Jose officials about city affairs are public records.The ruling Friday in Santa Clara County has the potential to settle a long-simmering legal debate in California over access to such records.The state’s Public Record Acts and other laws require communications of elected officials and other public officials on public issues to be retained and turned over upon request.While 26 states view the use of private emails for government business as public records, California and the rest have no clear rules or prevailing case law — a source for continuing turmoil in state courts, according to the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.