The question of whether public officials violate the sunshine law when sending text messages about public business, sometimes during public meetings, was considered here back in 2011 (“Text messages and sunshine“).

I decided to take another look at how this issue has developed. The issue seems to be getting a lot of play in Florida.

A community group filed suit over texts sent in a public meeting (“Orange County sick pay issue returns to court“).

The group Citizens for a Greater Orange County filed a lawsuit against Orange County over possible violations of the state’s Sunshine Law.

A judge reviewed the motion brought by the group that collected signatures on a petition last year to place a referendum on the November ballot.

The motion would have demanded earned sick pay for workers, but commissioners voted in September to block the measure.

A WESH 2 News investigation later revealed that commissioners at that hearing were texting back and forth with lobbyists representing businesses that opposed the measure and then deleting those messages.

In Palm Beach (“Are public officials’ text messages during city commission meetings subject to public record laws?“):

Texting, once the preferred method of communication for teenagers and young adults, has become a common way for public officials to communicate with the public.

At last week’s West Palm Beach commission meeting, former commission candidate Gregg Weiss accused commissioners of using text messages during meetings in violation of the state’s Sunshine Law.

“While a public meeting is going on communications are transpiring from outside of this chamber, conversations being held electronically are going on and I believe that is a violation of our Sunshine Laws,” said Weiss during public comment. “Everything needs to be out in the Sunshine so if a conversation is happening between anybody up on the dias during the meeting it should be on the record.”

A recent editorial in the Gainesville Sun reviewed the issues raised when public officials give lobbyists direct access via text messages while issues are being debated and voted on.

The Orange County Commission has faced criticism over several commissioners exchanging texts with lobbyists about a referendum to require employers to offer paid sick time. The texts were sent at a meeting during which commissioners voted against putting the measure on the ballot. With some commissioners reporting that they deleted or lost texts, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating possible Sunshine Law violations.

At the state level, Public Service Commission staffers were caught offering PINs — unique identifiers for cellphones that allow direct texting — of staff and commissioners. The offers were made to Florida Power & Light lobbyists while the utility sought commission approval of a 30 percent rate increase.

Last year, an investigation by the Wisconsin State Journal highlighted the problem.

Madison City Council members are emailing or texting colleagues, lobbyists, staff and others during public meetings, raising questions about whether the state’s Open Meetings Law has kept pace with changing technology.

The unseen flow of electronic communications — from the snarky and playful to real-time conversations on key matters before the council, including millions of dollars in public funds for redevelopment of the Edgewater Hotel or Overture Center — is revealed in records obtained by the State Journal under the state Open Records Law.

…the records lay bare a previously unknown level of private communications at council meetings and suggest similar exchanges likely occur in other governmental bodies across Wisconsin, including the state Legislature. The records don’t include comments made on social media such as Facebook, which present their own challenges to open government.

And a California judge has ruled that texts and emails by public officials about official business are public records, a ruling that could have broad application.

In recent years, civic activists and news reporters in the state have hit a snag when they’ve suspected they weren’t getting all of the government communication they’d asked for in public records act requests. That’s because officials at the state and local level figured out a strategy to avoid disclosing certain records and information, according to Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition.

“And that strategy is if they want to talk about government business and the matter is sensitive, something they don’t want the public to know about, then the way to do that is by using personal email, personal text messaging services so that they can avoid the California Public Records Act,” he said.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg’s ruled this month that San Jose officials must hand over private emails and text messages containing city business. The ruling is not legally binding across the state. But Scheer says it could have broader consequences if appealed.

“Because I’m confident that decision will be affirmed on appeal and it will be affirmed in the published decision that will be more authoritative,” he said.