"'It shows a contempt for the Public Records Act, that the mayor thinks it can be so easily avoided,' said media attorney Glen Smith of the First Amendment Coalition. 'The reality is that regardless of the device that you use, regardless of what email account it is, if it's a public official communicating with somebody regarding official city business, then it is subject to the Public Records Act.'

"San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo appears to have skirted public records laws by directing a resident to contact him on his private Gmail and deleting their correspondence from his public government account.

"'The move could also run afoul of the 'destruction of a public record' clause under the state's records retention law, which requires documents and communications from public officials to be stored for a certain amount of time, Glen Smith said.

"The email thread, obtained by San José Spotlight, shows the mayor promising to delete the conversation from his official email. None of the messages in question—which dealt with public business—were turned over in a public records request. This means Liccardo effectively avoided their public disclosure by using his private account and deleting the thread.

"'Please communicate with me at the following email: s***********@gmail.com. Please do not share the email address. I'm going to delete this email from my government account,' Liccardo wrote, also copying his private email.

"Liccardo and Largent continued to communicate about the police corruption, emails show, with the mayor responding with his private email.

"The city said it could not find those emails. Once the mayor's and city attorney's offices learned that San José Spotlight had copies of the deleted communications, an official at Liccardo's office changed his tune."

Hey, Kentucky Attorney General! The same is 100% true under the Open Records Act. Your contempt for the law is showing.

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