It is fascinating that the Tracy Press is hiring local lawyer Mark Connolly to sue Tracy Mayor Pro Tem Suzanne Tucker for her e-mails on her personal computer regarding Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Site 300 plans. What is fascinating about this little adventure is that many of those who want Tucker to turn over her PC, where the P stands for personal, are also screaming about the government listening in on private phone calls of persons who are suspected to be a terrorist threat to our nation. Well folks, you can’t have it both ways.
Tucker is using her own bought-and-paid-for personal computer for city business. It is unfortunate that the city does not provide personal computers to City Council members with city assigned e-mail addresses and accounts for them to conduct city business. If that were the case, all information on that computer would be publicly owned and therefore would be publicly accessible. However, that is not the case.
Tucker is using her private property. Now, what e-mails transpire on that private property are hers and hers alone. It’s no one’s business or right to demand she disclose what is on her piece of private property. If there were probable cause to believe she was a threat to national security, the rules might change. However, I doubt Tucker and Osama bin Laden will be exchanging pleasantries any time soon. Where’s the American Civil Liberties Union when you need them.
It is also interesting that many of the folks who want Tucker’s e-mails opened to the public are standing on the left side of the aisle. Many of the people screaming at the government for listening in on private phone calls are also on the left side. Tucker comes from the right side of the aisle. I find that another fascinating point. But, then again, that has nothing to do with the situation. Yeah, right!
It is time for the city to cough up the bucks and pay for personal laptops for all City Council members. Private computers and private laptops should be, by city rules, banned from conducting city business. It should also be the city’s responsibility to provide the City Council members with e-mail accounts along with assigned names to those accounts. If that were to happen, this privacy issue would be moot and we could all spend our collective time sticking our noses into the public servants’ correspondence. Then again, the remedy sounds too simple, yet practical.
Tim Michael Case has lived in Tracy for 25 years and operates a private driving school here and throughout the central part of California.