Elected officials tend to meet the world with an overinflated self-image and a high dose of entitlement—often to no benefit for the people they are elected to serve. They feel entitled to information and expect people to be at their beck and call for the sole reason that they are elected. The title, whether it be School Board member, Congresswoman, State Committeeman, District Attorney, or anything else one can be elected to, quickly gets to their head.
Elected officials are often members of numerous organizations where they are recognized by their title and last name, as if they are some kind of royalty. Nothing could be further from the truth, yet their ego blocks them from exercising common sense and understanding their place in society as representatives of the People. They forget that they work for you—the taxpayers, the voters.
Some elected officials will try to obtain information in ways that may violate certain rules, laws, and regulations, particularly those governing information sharing. They will use their title as the basis for their demands. It is clear that they become very upset when those demands are not met—especially when they are not met immediately.
But that is too bad.
Whether the requester of information—such as member information within organizations—is an elected official or just any Joe, Jane, or John down the street, people’s right to have their information protected still stands. Organizations must maintain integrity and ensure their members’ information is not shared without their written, express consent.
It is no different from medical professionals and lawyers, who have a duty to keep their clients’ information confidential and ensure that it is not shared on electronic devices used outside their medical practice or law office. Elected officials—the entitled—are held, and must be held, to the same standards as those in the private sector. No exceptions.
And what is the big deal if elected officials—the lawmakers, let’s not forget—have to wait a bit longer to ensure that no privacy laws or regulations are broken when responding to a request for information?
Let’s not forget that government often takes quite some time before it—if it ever does—shares information requested by the public. There are times when information is redacted or when people are told there is nothing to see, that all is “null and void.”
So apply the same rules that lawmakers—elected officials—create to protect people’s privacy and contact information to themselves, just as they are applied in the private sector. The People expect their elected officials—the lawmakers—to be held to the same standards. Remember, no one is above the law. Right?
by Karina Schmitt