Mayor’s request to access council emails rejected

After a request by Wimberley Mayor Susan Jaggers to access Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Minnick’s city email account was brought to the attention of the Wimberley City Council, the council made it clear that it is a practice that is not allowed.

“I was requesting it for my Mayor Pro Tem to make sure we were in step,” Jaggers said. “…I already monitor the staff. It is from a military background of trust but verify.”

It was discussed during the meeting that Jaggers already accesses email accounts of city staff.

Jaggers argued that the information is public information and should be accessible.

“If the email has been sent, it is already after the fact,” Jaggers said. “It is nothing more you couldn’t get from the (Freedom Of Information Act). This just saves time for FOIA.”

Wimberley’s City Attorney Megan Santee stated that was correct “but they would have to follow the process.” When a Freedom of Information Act request is made, both the city council and the city staff must submit the information that falls in line with the request. The city also has the ability to withhold certain information based upon specific guidelines.

The majority of the council agreed that it was a practice that needed to stop.

“I am the Mayor Pro Tem. I am not the Mayor’s Mayor Pro Tem,” Councilmember Rebecca Minnick said. “I am here and appointed by this body not by the Mayor… I don’t agree with the Mayor having access to my email, and I don’t agree with the Mayor having access to any city staff including the city administrator. I don’t support any of this sharing of email. I think it is intrusive, overreach and creates a negative tone or environment. I think it needs to stop.”

Everyone on the council seemed to agree that Jaggers should not have access to the email of other council members.

“I think this is a privacy issue,” Councilmember Craig Fore said. “…We have access because we have a log-in and a password. There is a reason for that. If there is anything anybody needs they can fill out a FOIA, and then I at least know somebody is looking.”

When asked if this was something “normal” the city attorney stated that it is a “practice that I am not familiar with going on.”

However, there was some discussion about whether Jaggers should have access to the email accounts of city staff.

Jaggers argued that state statute grants the Mayor authority as the “CEO” of the city, and that she should have this access in order to oversee the work of the employees.

“It is a government computer. It is a government employee. There is no private information, and if there is we should be taking action on that,” Jaggers said.

The city attorney stated that the state statute Jaggers was referring to did not grant her a supervisory role over city staff.

“It is a question of ensuring we are following the rules and regulations that we have adopted for Wimberley, and the provision you are stating does not set out that you have supervisory, daily responsibilities over staff,” Santee said. “It says that the Mayor’s duties and responsibilities will be prescribed by the governing body under Chapter 22.”

In this case, the governing body is the city council. Jaggers continued to assert these powers were granted by the state of Texas.

“Under the state statue with the Mayor being the Chief Executive Officer of a municipality, who is the officer of that? Who am I chief over?” Jaggers said.

The back and forth continued until multiple members of the city council “called the question” multiple times to end the discussion.

The city council approved a motion to stop the Mayor, or any council member, from accessing emails of both the staff and other members of the governing body. A formal resolution or ordinance is also expected to be presented at the next meeting. Gary Barchfeld was the lone vote against the measure after previously stating that he thought the mayor should have access to the emails of city staff for the purpose of oversight. He said he was “for what we were saying” but he voted against the motion because it was “all over the world.”