Opacity unmasked #1: Albemarle, Charlottesville and schools reveal secret email recipients

For a long time, citizens of Charlottesville and Albemarle attempting to contact their elected representatives through official city and county web sites have been deceived.

The Schilling Show recently discovered that emails sent to the following entities have been blind copied to previously undisclosed recipients:

Advertised recipient: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors
email address: bos@albemarle.org
Previously undisclosed recipients: the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors, the County Executive, and the County Attorney
URL: https://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=bos&relpage=2101

Advertised recipient: Charlottesville City Council
email address: council@charlottesville.org
Previously undisclosed recipients: the City Manager, the Assistant City Managers, and the Clerk of Council
URL: http://www.charlottesville.org/departments-and-services/departments-a-g/city-council/council-members

Advertised recipient: Albemarle County School Board
email address: schoolboard@k12albemarle.org​
Previously undisclosed recipients: the Clerk of the School Board
URL: https://www2.k12albemarle.org/acps/division/board/Pages/default.aspx

Advertised recipient: Charlottesville School Board
email address: SchoolBoard@charlottesvilleschools.org
Previously undisclosed recipients: the Clerk of the School Board
URL: http://charlottesvilleschools.org/home/school-board/

Inquiries on this covert practice to spokespersons for the four named bodies yielded generally positive responses. Each entity has since altered their respective web sites to disclose a complete email recipient list, thus allowing citizens—who do not wish their correspondence clandestinely directed to non-elected officials—to instead use individual Board and Council member email addresses.

(h/t Gary Grant)

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