Sarasota commissioners will include disclaimers when sharing opinions on city letterhead
Sarasota city commissioners have agreed to include a disclaimer when they express their own opinions on official city letterhead.
The disclaimer would convey that the letter expresses the commissioner’s personal position and doesn’t represent the commission’s position. Commissioners will further discuss the use of city letterhead at a future workshop, and they plan to use a disclaimer in the meantime, said city spokesman Jason Bartolone.
“I firmly believe that you shouldn’t use city letterhead for personal use,” Commissioner Liz Alpert said at last Tuesday's meeting.
The letterhead shows each of the names of the commissioners and the names of the city manager, the city auditor and clerk, and the city attorney.
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Alpert told the Herald-Tribune that she had requested that this matter be placed on the board's agenda because of a letter written by Commissioner Hagen Brody last November.
Brody wrote a character reference letter to a judge about Mark Riddell, his former tennis teammate at Sarasota High School. Riddell had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of money laundering in the college admissions scandal and was awaiting sentencing.
Brody’s letter was on city letterhead.
“People looking at it don’t know that it’s not from the city in general, so I just thought we should have a policy about that,” Alpert told the Herald-Tribune.
In addition to recommending that a disclaimer be included in letters, Alpert also suggested that the official letterhead only be used for city business. The commission didn’t adopt that suggestion, though. Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch gave an example of a situation that isn’t city business, but that would merit letterhead use.
“There may be times when, for example, a commissioner may want to recommend an intern for entrance to college or a job or something like that, where your experience with them as a commissioner comes into the role, but it’s not necessarily city business,” she said.
Brody wasn’t able to attend the commission meeting because of a work conflict. In an interview with the Herald-Tribune, he said that the use of letterhead for appropriate purposes is “a common practice across industries.”
“But I’m indifferent to what they want to do moving forward,” he said. “I’m focused on bigger issues than how other electeds use the letterhead.”
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Brody said he is focused on water quality, affordable housing, the environment and other issues.
Steven J. Zuilkowski, the deputy executive director and general counsel of the Florida Commission on Ethics, said in an email to Brody in April that public officers are not misusing their position when they write a letter of recommendation on official letterhead, even when the letter is written for the benefit of “a person who has nothing to do with the business of” their public office.
Mayor Erik Arroyo has also expressed his opinion on city letterhead. He sent a letter this year to Marina Jack’s attorney, asserting that the business’ lease of city property needs to be "more equitable" for taxpayers.
Anne Snabes covers city and county government for the Herald-Tribune. You can contact her at asnabes@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @a_snabes.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota commissioners agree to use disclaimers on city letterhead
