On A State Agency Issued Phone And We Want To Protect His Privacy????

[Johnson85]

This I don't understand, and to me holds no validity. A State Agencty issued phone or moreso the calls or service plan is being paid for by Missisippi tax payer dollars, unless there is some other option that I'm not aware of. In my opinion, I don't see how any phone numbers can be redacted. If somebody uses a State issued phone and they decide to use it for personal calls, as well, then those calls should be a a pert of the public call log. And if numbers can be redacted, how is there any assuranced that some numbers that shouldn't have been redacted were redacted. I believe they said Freeze did the redaction, but maybe I'm wrong on that. If i'm missing something here, please enlighten me.

MS's public records law is not set up to apply or not apply based on ownership or possession of the record, it's set up to cover records used in the business of the university. That doesn't impact the University's right to get the records for a phone it pays for, but it does prevent the university from having to disclose personal calls.

What's interesting is that once the University has reviewed the phone log to look for evidence of NCAA violations or violations of a moral turpitude clause in Freeze's contract, technically at that point they have become a public record, and subject to disclosure, whereas if they just reviewed the records to determine which calls were personal, that would not make them a public record.

ETA: On the flip side, using a private phone for a business call doesn't mean it's exempt from the public records act (although as a practical matter it goes a long way) any more than using private email gets around the public record act.

[WesternSkyDawg]

What's interesting is that once the University has reviewed the phone log to look for evidence of NCAA violations or violations of a moral turpitude clause in Freeze's contract, technically at that point they have become a public record, and subject to disclosure, whereas if they just reviewed the records to determine which calls were personal, that would not make them a public record.

This is a very astute point

Hadn't thought of that. I bet ol Ross hasn't either. Time for a fresh request for an unredacted copy from some enterprising reporter out there (or lawyer Mars) after this admission in last night's press conference.

Excellent work, my good man!