Lawsuit against the City of Reno for alleged harassment and retaliation against two former employees shows candid text messages. Read more:  https://thisisreno.com/2018/12/lawsuit-reveals-crazy-text-conversations-among-city-leaders/

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

Jacksonville, Florida City Council explores solutions to archiving the Council’s text messages. Read more: ​https://floridapolitics.com/archives/203386-the-future-of-communications-tracking-in-the-jax-city-council-is-now

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/