From the Charlotte Observer (1/3/11): The city of Charlotte wants to give subscribers to its informational e-mail service more privacy by making it harder to obtain their e-mail addresses under the state's open records law.
The city has a database of 20,000 addresses, and it wants to make it more difficult for an e-mail spammer to use them, said Dana Fenton, the city’s lobbyist.
As part of its legislative agenda, Charlotte will ask the General Assembly in Raleigh next year for an exemption so it won’t have to give out electronic or paper copies of the e-mails.
The list would still be a public record and could be inspected by hand.
“Today we have to provide (lists) in an electronic-file format,” said Dana Fenton, the city’s lobbyist. “People can then convert that to Outlook.”
The city is making its request after several municipalities in Wake County, along with Yadkin County, were granted similar exemptions this summer by the General Assembly.
Under the Wake and Yadkin County exemptions, a government doesn’t have to provide a copy of the e-mail list.