HB 1149 — what we told the committee about text messages
HB 1149 would state explicitly what most Clearwater attorneys already believe: that a message about municipal business is a public record whatever application it was sent in, including applications that delete messages automatically.
CAMRO’s position, filed with the Local Government Committee on 6 August, is that we support the clarification and oppose the implementation timeline.
Why we support it
Clerks are currently asked to answer a question the statute does not address, usually by a requester who has already decided what the answer should be. Two municipalities have been sued over it. The uncertainty falls entirely on the records officer, who is not the person sending the messages.
A clear rule is better than a defensible guess, even when the clear rule is more work.
What we told them it costs
The bill assumes capture is a configuration change. In a municipality with one full-time employee and elected officials using personal phones, it is not.
We gave the committee three numbers from our own members:
- Median municipal IT budget in Clearwater towns under 2,500: $0. There is no line. Software is bought by the year out of general fund when something breaks.
- Members with any mobile message capture today: 11 of 344. All eleven are in municipalities over 15,000.
- Members whose elected officials use municipality-issued phones: 38. Everyone else is being asked to retain records held on devices the municipality does not own and cannot lawfully search.
That last point is the one the committee had not considered, and it is the one that will decide whether this bill is workable.
What we asked for
An eighteen-month implementation window rather than the six months as drafted, a state-negotiated procurement so that 214 municipalities are not each buying their own tool, and an explicit safe harbour for a records officer who has issued a written policy and cannot compel an elected official to follow it.
What happens next
Committee hearing in the 2027 session. The Legislative Breakfast on 9 February is scheduled for the morning HB 1149 is due for testimony, which is not a coincidence.
If you can attend, the most useful thing you can bring is one sentence about your own municipality’s numbers.
Legislative Breakfast and Capitol Day · Read the filed position