Read why Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s failed legal battle to keep his secret government-related emails and texts will cost the city's taxpayers: 
​https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-emanuel-email-costs-20190222-story.html

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Judge rules City of Cincinnati will pay $101,000 over text messages sent between five members of the city council in violation of Ohio's open meetings laws. Read more: ​https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21050102/everything-you-should-know-about-the-cincinnati-city-council-text-lawsuit

The mayor, who used his personal phone instead of a government-issued phone, routinely deleted all of his text messages about city business. In the process he created a huge gap in public records. Read more: ​https://www.philly.com/news/philadelphia-mayor-jim-kenney-deleted-texts-public-records-transparency-20190216.html

Personal phone presets led to the destruction of public record of city business. Vice mayor resigned days after Tampa Bay Times made a records request. Read more: ​https://www.tampabay.com/clearwater/former-clearwater-vice-mayor-withheld-public-record-text-messages-20181214/

A group text between the mayor, city manager and four members of the city council constituted a quorum. That meant the text chain was a meeting conducted without public notice, in violation of state law. Read more: ​​https://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/neosho-council-used-text-messages-to-discuss-city-business/article_9fa438ce-eba2-55f2-9620-4763cccea531.html

City council members sharing vote plans via text message were accused of forming a voting majority out of view from the public eye. Read more: ​https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/08/27/31436522/why-councilmember-lorena-gonzalezs-im-a-yes-text-message-is-so-troubling

82 text messages from a city council member to other city officials were deleted. The councilman either failed to retain the messages or destroyed them, which would be a criminal offense. Messages couldn’t be retrieved even by an outside forensic tech firm who suggested they were professionally deleted. ​https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/riviera-beach/attorney-for-riviera-beach-admits-problem-text-messages-gone

Public records requests revealed Boston Mayor Marty Walsh deleted his text messages. Destroying text messages is illegal under the state public records law, which calls for all electronic correspondence to be retained for at least two years, even if it contains no “informational or evidential value.” Read more: ​https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2016/01/08/marty-walsh-text-messages/