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Sandpoint commission tables vote on sharing commissioners' personal email addresses; staff routing recommended
Summary
After a staff briefing on open-meeting and public-records risks, the Sandpoint Urban Forestry Commission voted unanimously to table an item that would have had commissioners share their personal email addresses with one another; staff will route inter-commission materials through the clerk and post to the commission portal instead.
The commission discussed whether members should provide personal or dedicated email addresses to one another for intra-committee communication. Staff warned commissioners that group email discussions can violate the Idaho open meeting law and that email relating to commission business is subject to Idaho public-records law.
Kyle Schreiber, City Council liaison, and staff explained the city clerk's direction: commissioners may supply a dedicated address for posting or have staff (the board clerk) distribute information on their behalf. Staff recommended that commissioners email materials to staff for posting on the commission portal rather than copying all members, to avoid serial-meeting risks.
Commissioner Preston Andrews moved to table the item and route any interim communication through staff and the commission landing page; the motion was seconded and adopted by unanimous voice vote. The chair declared the item tabled.
Separately, the commission earlier approved the minutes of the March 6 meeting by unanimous voice vote.
Ending: The commission will not exchange materials via group email; commissioners may provide a dedicated address to staff for posting or continue to rely on staff to distribute documents to the portal.
