“She is not permitted by federal regulations to send e-mails from her government account about unofficial business,” said the city administrator.
Olson told the WEAR reporter that Nichols had sent from her government account 350 e-mails to city employees in a three-year span. The camera showed several emails scrolling on a computer monitor.
Melanie Nichols, the homeowners’ association president, said the emails weren’t out of the ordinary. She said that the policy–that Olson said she violated–states government employees cannot represent themselves as government employees for unofficial business. Nichols was adamant that she had not violated that policy.
She said, “We’re allowed at work… they encourage us to volunteer in the community and to be active and all they ask is that we don’t send anything from work that is disrespectful or hateful, or mean or misrepresents the government or anything.”
Nichols has been the president of the North Hill Preservation Association for years and has been a community volunteer for over a decade -The Governor’s Front Porch vice-chair, Hopkins House Celebration Tour committee chair, North Hill Tour of Homes committee chair, Long Hollow Neighborhood Association treasurer, etc. City employees know Melanie Nichols.
Note: Inweekly checked its archives and found emails using her government account as far back as 2006, but she never represented herself as speaking for the U.S. Navy or the federal government. Whether her emails came for a gmail account or her work account, it didn’t matter to our newspaper.
Olson told WEAR TV that he sent an e-mail to city employees mandating they were not to reply to anyone’s request e-mails sent from a government address. They were to instruct the sender to re-mail using a private account.
See segment.
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Observations: 1) Three hundred and fifty emails over a three-year period is a little less than 10 emails a month being sent to city employees. That isn’t that many considering how many employees and departments could be involved in any one issue –particularly considering the issues impacting North Hill over the past 18 months, such as the ice storm, floods, Parole & Probation offices, cell tower, and stormwater.
2) Why did the city administrator single out Nichols? Shouldn’t his mandate that city employees tell anyone using a government account to re-mail the message via a private account have been sufficient?
3) Shouldn’t the information in the email be more important than the email account used?
Olson’s answers leave more questions. He’s coming across as the hall monitor of city government.