Woodside, Basses settle trails, records dispute Woodside, Basses settle trails, records dispute (February 02, 2005)

** Town agrees to pay $10,000 and set up a system to improve public access to town e-mails.

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

The dustup over public records access between the town of Woodside and Robert and Anne Bass has come to an end.

Mr. and Ms. Bass filed suit against the town last year to force the release of e-mails sent from Woodside Town Council members' homes and business accounts as part of a sweeping public records request regarding a swap of horse trail easements on their Canada Road property.

Town staff maintained that they turned over all correspondence regarding the Basses and their trail, but said they couldn't turn over e-mail that might have been sent from town officials' private accounts because they did not possess them.

In a settlement reached last week, the town agreed to provide council members with e-mail addresses on the town's server, to take a number of steps to disclose that any e-mails sent to and from town addresses are public records, and to pay $10,000 to Mr. and Ms. Bass, according to a joint press release sent out January 28.

The $10,000 is a token sum toward the cost of the Basses' legal fees, said Town Manager Susan George.

Each of the seven Town Council members now have e-mail accounts on the town server that can be accessed through the official town of Woodside Web site, www.WoodsideTown.org.

The Web site also hosts a new disclaimer: "These e-mail accounts are the only e-mail accounts that should be used to communicate with the Council members about Town business. All e-mails sent to accounts on the Town's server are public records, subject to disclosure except as otherwise provided by law."

Exceptions to the public records act include private communications between an attorney and client, litigation and personnel matters, and police records, said Ms. George.

All e-mails sent to town addresses will be retained for two years, and made available upon request by any member of the public. Screening the e-mails for information that is exempt from the public records act is a task that will likely fall to either her or City Clerk Janet Koelsch, Ms. George said.

"I think the Basses and the town did approach (the settlement) from a spirit of cooperation," said Ms. Bass.

The lawsuit had its origins in the contentious wrangling over a horse trail that runs through the Bass property on Canada Road and connects to Albion Avenue. Mr. and Ms. Bass asked the town to abandon the trail in exchange for a new one they had already built, triggering a heated debate among local equestrians as to which trail was preferable.

Last May, the Town Council voted to accept the new trail and abandon its rights to the old one in exchange for another new trail easement on an adjacent property owned by Mr. and Ms. Bass, along with other conditions. The Basses found the town's counter-offer unacceptable, and in November the Town Council dropped its request for the additional trail.

Since then, representatives for the Basses have been working with town staff to comply with the council's other conditions needed to carry through the exchange of trail easements, Ms. George said.

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