Complaint Opinion 03-06
Date
08/21/2003
Number
03-06
Topic
Personal use of public resources - email - order of dismissal
Respondent
Tabitah Wells, Chrissy Poe, Joe Anderson
Question/Complaint
The complaint alleges that legislative employees used their legislative computers to send and receive personal e-mails in violation of Legislative Ethics Board Rule 3.
Summary
The Board concluded the alleged use did not violate the limited personal use permitted by Rule 3. However, legislative staff should not presume their personal e-mails sent or received on state equipment are private or protected by the Ethics Act. In this case the e-mails may be viewed as office gossip between friends - no facts alleged or discovered which show that frequency or duration of e-mails negatively impacted productivity. Dismissed for lack of reasonable cause.