BALOG COLUMN: Is it really OK to text in meeting?

Think about the last meeting you went to at work. You probably sent a text or some email, maybe both.

Who among us has not pulled out a smartphone, "just for a minute," to check for an email or a text message, and then suddenly see an entire conversation or lunch slip away? For most of us, this issue is one of etiquette and respect, and it stops there. If you're an elected official, however, it brings up a whole new set of questions.

Charleston City Council voted Tuesday to amend a tiny piece of city code to allow members to communicate by silent messaging, either by text or email, during meetings.

Doesn't sound quite right, does it?

Sorry, I wasn't listening

The intent, as was explained at a meeting earlier this month, was to allow communication of urgent personal matters, such as the example put forth by Councilman William Dudley Gregorie about the ordinance essentially forbidding him from getting a communication from his ill mother.

"Your mother is sick and somebody's going to be communicating her condition, yeah, have your phone there," said S.C. Press Association attorney Jay Bender. "Nothing short of that seems to be a need for a legitimate text message during a city council meeting."

Other hypothetical situations emerge, such as knowing that your school-age child has arrived home safely.

Council members seemed to indicate in their discussions Tuesday that they know their texts and emails during meetings could be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Which is a good thing, but it still begs the question of whether this is a step in the right direction.

We have a governor who's been subject to scrutiny for a sort-of public email policy. What happens when you bring that to the local level?

Throw in the little matter of doing the public's business and you can start to see how this could be a real problem. The intentions are probably pure, but the ramifications are problematic, even if everybody agrees that the information communicated in the public meeting, in any form, is, well, public.

Can you hear me now?

You may have seen the YouTube video of the college professor smashing a student's smartphone with a sledgehammer. Smartphones and personal email are the bane of people who are trying to communicate information effectively and efficiently because they divide the audience's attention.

Bender pointed to the state definition of the Freedom of Information Act that includes the phrase: "regardless of physical form or characteristic," meaning a text or a handwritten note or an email would -- or should -- all be treated the same.

"The whole idea of the FOIA is to prevent secret government activity, according to the South Carolina Supreme Court," Bender said. "Why should the means of communication alter that premise?"

Do you really want your city council members checking their email when they're supposed to be voting on how to spend taxpayer dollars?

Or possibly telling each other how they're going to vote?