Board considers a public RTA email distribution list and policy safeguards

Staff presented options for a public RTA email account modeled on other boards and commissions. Andrea Epstein explained a distribution list would surface messages to RTA members without publishing individual personal addresses; a likely account name proposed was transit.authority@raleighnc.gov. She cautioned that emails and any board responses would be public records and subject to public‑records requests.

Board members asked operational questions: who would respond, whether replies would create inadvertent quorums, and how the public would understand that a response is the individual's opinion rather than a board decision. Several members favored a forward‑only model in which staff triages and forwards relevant messages to the board and the account would include a disclaimer that the board may not respond. The chair asked finance and policy to draft a policy on how to process and respond to messages, and the board agreed to return the topic to the committee for an action item.