Records Reveal Ward 3 Council Member Spends Hours on Social Media and Sends Secret Emails During Public Meetings
by Patricia Lesko
City web server log records turned over to the The Ann Arbor Independent in response to a series of FOIA requests show that yet another Ann Arbor City Council member used his city-owned computer to access Facebook and Twitter for hours during public meetings.
Public records released by the City of Ann Arbor show that Ward 3 Council member Zachary Ackerman (D), during four public meetings examined in 2017 (Jan. 17, Feb. 21, Mar. 13 and Mar. 16) used his city-owned computer and the city’s computer network to browse Facebook and Twitter for a total of six hours. Ackerman browsed Facebook and Twitter analytics during each meeting. He visited the two sites for periods of time ranging from under five minutes to as long as 65 minutes. Ackerman made over 120 page requests to the social media sites, including during a Mar. 13, 2017 meeting at which budgets totaling more than $35 million were presented to Council by the Downtown Development Authority, the Pension Board and the LDFA, among other city-controlled entities.
In addition, records provided from the city’s outgoing email server show that during public meetings Ackerman used his city-owned computer to send emails in secret.
Council rules do not forbid members from browsing social media sites or shopping online during public meetings or during public commentary. However, sending electronic communications during an open meeting without alerting Council members and the public is a violation of City Council rules adopted in 2016. Rule 10 states:
“During Council meetings, members shall not send private electronic communication to persons other than City Staff; provided however, that members may send draft motions, resolutions, and amendments to the City Clerk who will forward them to members of Council. Members shall not respond to member‐distributed draft language via electronic communication. All draft language sent by electronic communication during Council meetings shall be read into the record prior to discussion by Council. Members will not send publicly‐accessible electronic communications (e.g. Twitter and FaceBook posts) during meetings.”
Ward 5 Council member Chuck Warpehoski said about his colleagues using email during public meetings: “I have reminded colleagues in past about Council rules regarding email and regarding using :cc or reply all when emailing.”
Ackerman recently announced he is running for re-election. Former Ward 3 Council member Stephen Kunselman (D) is opposing Ackerman in the August 2017 primary election.
Like Ackerman, records showed Council member Julie Grand (D-Ward 3) used her city-owned computer to send emails during a public meeting. More public records are being sought to determine the extent of the Ward 3 Council members’ use of email in secret as well as the extent of Council member Grand’s use of her city-owned computer to browse social media during public meetings.
Public records obtained by The Ann Arbor Independent revealed that Ward 2 Council members Jane Lumm (I) and Kirk Westphal (D) did not access social media or the city’s outgoing mail server using their city-owned computers during the four public meetings examined by the newspaper. Public records request responses are expected by April 30 for City Council members in Wards 1 and 4 to determine their use, if any, of social media and outgoing email during public meetings.
Video records available from the meetings at which Ackerman sent his emails show no instances of the Council member sending draft motions, resolutions or amendments to the City Clerk.
“The Council rules are very clear on sending emails and other forms of electronic communications during meetings. It’s prohibited. There’s no gray area. It’s a clear prohibition,” said Jack Eaton (D-Ward 4).
The Council’s electronic communication use rules were crafted after the City Council was sued in 2009 for Open Meetings Acts violations resulting from the use of email during public meetings, a suit City Attorney Postema settled in 2010. In part, the suit was triggered by email vote-rigging and secret emails sent during open meetings by Ward 3 Council members Leigh Greden and Christopher Taylor, among others. Council members’ emails were obtained by the former Ann Arbor News through FOIA requests, then published in batches in June and July 2009.
Two months after the email scandal broke, Greden was voted off Council in large part, according to voters interviewed by AnnArbor.com, because of the email scandal. It was Stephen Kunselman who beat Greden in the Democratic primary election.
Depending on the contents of Ackerman’s emails sent during the public meetings in question, he may have also violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act. The Ann Arbor Independent will file a series of FOIA requests to obtain the text of emails sent by Ackerman during public meetings.
On April 14, 2017, The Ann Arbor Independent reported that both Ward 5 Council members, Chip Smith (D) and Chuck Warpehoski (D) spent a collective 14 hours browsing Facebook and Twitter during four public meetings in 2017: Jan. 17, Feb. 21, Mar. 13 and Mar. 16. The two elected officials sent a combined 800 page requests to the two social media sites during the same four Council meetings.
During the four public meetings for which web server records were analyzed, Ackerman, Smith and Warpehoski collectively browsed Facebook and Twitter for over 20 hours and sent more than 900 page requests to the two social media sites. The Council members’ time on social media during City Council meeting included hours browsing Twitter and Facebook user statistics and graphs. The web server records examined included a Council Work Session at which the public spoke about whether the publicly-owned Fifth Ave. Library Lot should be sold to Core Spaces, a Chicago developer.
Like Council member Smith, who is also seeking re-election, Ackerman’s page requests included Facebook and Twitter analytics and page requests to a Twitter api page. Api is a tool which allows Twitter to communicate with third-party software—a campaign website, for example. Like Chip Smith, Ackerman also made page requests to Twitter syndication, a tool that helps Twitters users pay to promote content on and off Twitter.
The Twitter syndication and api page requests suggest Ackerman may have spent time during the Feb. 21 and Mar. 13, 2017 public meetings exploring Twitter ads. Campaign finance forms for his 2015 campaign show Ackerman spent no money on either Facebook or Twitter ads.
The use of government-owned property, as well as the use of paid time in office for campaign purposes are violations of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act (MCFA). If the Michigan Department of State is unable to correct the violation or prevent further violations informally, an administrative hearing determines whether a civil violation of the MCFA has occurred. Campaign finance violations may be referred to the Attorney General for the enforcement of criminal penalties.
Public records obtained by the newspaper show that in addition to the Ward 2 Council members, Ward 5 Council members did not send any emails using their city-owned computers during the four public meetings for which outgoing email server records were requested.
Web server records did reveal that Council member Warpehoski established multiple Facebook chats during public meetings. Warpehoski violated Council Rule 10 by accessing Facebook chat. Due to the fact that Warpehoski violated Council rules and because the chats took place during public meetings, the contents of the chats are public records and subject to FOIA.
On April 20 city officials denied the FOIA request for the Facebook chat transcripts claiming that the Council member told city staff the requested public records do not exist. Facebook chats are automatically archived by the social media site and a user would have to manually delete the electronic messages. The city’s web server logged Warpehoski accessing multiple Facebook chats during multiple Council meetings.
The Ann Arbor Independent has appealed the FOIA denial to City Administrator Howard Lazarus.
After public records revealed Ward 5 Council members Smith and Warpehoski had spent hours on social media during public meetings, the newspaper filed multiple FOIAs to obtain public records which would reveal the social media usage of all City Council members during public meetings. In addition, the paper requested log reports from the city’s outgoing email server for all Council members’ city-owned computers. It was these records that revealed Ackerman had sent secret emails during three of five City Council meetings sampled and that Grand has sent emails during a Council meeting in April 2017.
When asked to comment on web and out going mail server records provided by city staff that revealed he’d spent six hours of browsing Facebook and Twitter and sent emails in secret during open meetings, Ackerman responded with a single sentence: “I have submitted all relevant information to the City Attorney’s office.”
When asked to address his use of a city-owned computer to browse Twitter and Facebook for hours during public meetings and public commentary, Ackerman chose not to comment. Similarly, when asked to address his violation of Council Rule 10 and, potentially the Michigan Open Meetings Act by sending emails in secret during public meetings, he also chose not to comment. When asked if he regretted playing on social media during public meetings, Ackerman chose not to comment.
In their runs for City Council, Warpehoski, Smith, Grand and Ackerman were all endorsed by Chris Taylor. Taylor went door-to-door with Ackerman, when he challenged incumbent Stephen Kunselman in the Democratic primary in August 2015.
Can i get screen credit for the frame grab you used of Chip? I think I shot that, anyhoo, before I knew what i was getting into.
Kevin,
Thanks for the heads up. CM Smith told The A2 Indy in writing (twice) that the video from which the photo was captured was his work. Glad you came forward to take credit and of course, we’ll make sure you’re recognized as the videographer.
So Chip took credit for Leeser’s work? Didn’t Leeser run against Chip? Why’s he helping Chip makes videos one minute and then running against him the next minute? This seems fishy.
[…] Records Reveal Ward 3 Council Member Spends Hours on Social Media and Sends Secret Emails During Pub… 20 comments […]
[…] Records Reveal Ward 3 Council Member Spends Hours on Social Media and Sends Secret Emails During Pub… 110 views | 19 comments […]
It has to be incredibly boring to listen to people on council and residents who drone on and on. Of course Ackerman and whoever else has been playing on Facebook and Twitter should be allowed to tune out the folks who pay the bills but who they just don’t want to listen to so they can do something more fun, like checking how many people liked a facebook photo or passed around a tweet. No one wants to listen to people they think are uninformed and annoying. These council members should just be honest and stop saying they’ll listen to residents and work to listen to everyone at the council table. Tell the truth: “Elect me! I’ll be playing on Facebook whenever I feel like it and sending emails rather than paying attention during council meetings and public comments.”
Glad to see my Ward 2 Council reps. paying attention and staying focused! Nice job Jane and Kirk.
More great reporting from the A2Indy.
That Chuck Warpehoski gave ‘advice’ to his council friends about their use of email while using Facebook chat during the meetings shows he’s either incredibly hypocritical or just plain dumb. I’m still trying to decide which. One thing is obvious and that is these people elected to council never learn but maybe that’s because neither do Ann Arbor voters. 🙂
Love, love, love the old cartoon from the AANews. I remember it. You could just leave Taylor and swap out the faces of the former city council babies with Grand, Ackerman and Smith.
As a Ward 3 resident I am appalled that Zachary Ackerman didn’t take responsibility for his poor judgement and apologize. We didn’t elect him (or anyone else – Julie Grand) to browse social media. We elected these people to serve on council and to behave professionally as they and the people who endorsed them assured us they would. Sending secret emails is just the icing on the cake. Nice work, young man, I’m sure your parents must be so proud of your inability to follow simple rules and use common sense.
Who told you this guy was elected to use his common sense? He’s supposed to do what they tell him to do and vote how they tell him vote. Do you know nothing about Ann Arbor politics?
@CE Michaels I for one believed Christopher Taylor’s email he circulated before the primary election in which he assured us that Zachary, though young, would demonstrate maturity and good judgement. This young man’s response to being asked about why he spent time in public meetings using Facebook and Twitter is utterly appalling. We’ll have to wait to see evidently whom he has been emailing during council meetings when – as council member Eaton points out – sending such private emails is absolutely prohibited. I don’t find this situation the least bit funny. I feel tricked.
Is Zachary Ackerman emailing other people on Council during the meetings?
I said it before and I’ll say it again. If I spent this much time on Facebook and Twitter while my boss was talking at work I’d be fired. These people are absolutely unbelievable.
@Anthony, the paper has filed more public records requests to answer that question.
Could you publish the raw data you received from the FOIA request? Because to me, it sounds like you’re not interpreting the data correctly.
A regular Joe user page request to Twitter will include requests to analytics.twitter.com, simply because that’s where their tracking beacons sit. Open up Chrome developer tools and watch the hundreds of page requests pour in for simple clicks. I’m sure Facebook has something similar. And yes, it included requests to API pages, because that’s how Facebook delivers its data to you. More importantly, how do you establish that they’re using it for N hours? If they had a tab open in the background from earlier in the day before the meeting, it’s going to continue making page requests through the API behind the scenes indefinitely. That’s how modern web applications work. Unless you have a digital forensics expert processing the data, you’re not remotely qualified to make judgements as to what someone is doing based on page request URIs.
@Josh, these are excellent points (and question raised). The Facebook and Twitter data were fetched from the city’s server by an IT staffer, a city employee. Right you are that it takes a bit of expertise to interpret server data. So, we turned over those data sets for interpretation to a computer science faculty member at Carnegie Melon. The data captured Council members actively requesting pages (browsing) while accessing Facebook and Twitter for hours on end on their city-owned computers during open meetings.
Background app refresh has been an ongoing developer/user discussion for both iOS and Android phones. As you point out, Josh, background refresh (you leave your Facebook app open on your phone while opening and using another app, i.e.) can chew through battery life and—of more concern—data usage. The server records were not for Council members’ phone use during open meetings. However, we’ve been tipped that some Council members are scrolling endlessly through Facebook and Twitter on their phones during open meetings, as well.
CM Warpehoski admitted he accessed Facebook chat during at least one open meeting. It’s why his chats are now being sought through FOIA. We were sent a video of CM Smith browsing Facebook as a member of the public spoke to Council (this video is what prompted the server data requests).
CM Ackerman’s use of Facebook and Twitter are compounded by the fact that he sent emails in secret during open meetings.
More to the point, Council members are leaving their laptops closed and their phones off, we been told. They are, in short, paying closer attention to the business at hand and giving the public the attention and respect due the public instead of playing on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
So will you publish the raw findings? In particular, the page request data that you’re referencing when you implied they could be running afoul of campaign finance law (a very serious charge to bring up without going into detail about your evidence)?
I’ll eat my shoe if these aren’t just routine background XHR requests that every one of us make on a daily basis without even knowing.
Josh, as you pointed out, it takes expertise to correctly interpret the data. We went to someone with a Ph.D. who has over 15 years of teaching experience at an out-of-state university ranked number four (and above UM) in the nation in computer science education. We did this in order to make sure we’re getting knowledgable and objective analyses. Thank you for your offer to provide us your personal interpretation and opinions from the point-of-view of the local cool musician. 🙂 You keep singing and we’ll keep reporting.
Your condescension is unnecessary. I’m not wearing my “local cool musician” hat, I’m wearing my “I have 22 years of professional software engineering experience, including helping to build one of the largest tech companies of the dot-com boom” hat. I don’t know if you’re just not clearly communicating this professor’s analysis, but the reporting here demonstrates a serious lack of expertise and understanding of the subject matter. This, combined with your unwillingness to elaborate on the details of the findings, casts doubt on everything in this article, especially with the obvious partisan bias against the Taylor faction.
@Josh Woodward I actually thought the answers to your comments and questions have been polite. Your assumptions about who analyzed the server information in the first place were condescending. You’re clearly offended that we don’t know who *you* are and know all about your *credentials.* I’d say you were a typical Ann Arbor know it all, but you’re probably the expert who invented it and you’ll get all hot under the collar I didn’t know you’ve been an Ann Arbor know it all for far longer than the rest of us.
These jokers have been screwing around on the job and got caught. @Burns Park’s comments about Ackerman’s answer to getting caught is straight up true. The kid comes off as an arrogant twit and that’s nobody’s fault but his own. Warp’s *advice* about using email while he’s all over Facebook chat would be funny if this was an episode of Veep.
I didn’t bring up my credentials on the matter until the anonymous editorial staff member implied that I don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t “know it all”, but I know enough to know that there are some claims here backed up by very suspicious data. I’m not saying the analysis is wrong, I’m simply asking for more details on the data that’s being used to make these serious claims.
A collective TWENTY hours on FB and Twitter, 900 page requests when they should be doing their jobs? Secret emailing when the rules and the law forbid it? The arrogance is stunning. Time for another OMA suit and to get rid of these three and any others who can’t be bothered to do their jobs. Endorsed by Christopher Taylor, apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Ackerman and Smith are up for reelection. They obviously need more time to spend on Facebook and Twitter. The solution is obvious, they should let someone else serve on Council.