"They're supposed to make those decisions in public," Piontek told The Missourian. Depending on how many members share an e-mail message, they may be in violation of the state Sunshine Law.

The question about e-mail messages among council members became an issue at Tuesday night's meeting during a debate over automatic renewal of the contract with Washington Aviation Inc. to manage Washington Regional Airport (see related story).

During the discussion, City Administrator Jim Briggs said that he received an e-mail from Councilman Tim Overschmidt requesting that he draft a letter terminating the current contract with Washington Aviation.

Briggs said he took that as an "order" from a single council member.

"Tim sent me an e-mail directing me to terminate the contract. I can't do that," Briggs stated, indicating that he can only act on executive directions from the mayor or from the full council, not from individual members.

Councilman John Rhodes produced a copy of the e-mail and argued that Overschmidt's letter was merely a request, noting that in the e-mail he said "please."

Mayor Dick Stratman said he read Overschmidt's e-mail. "It's an order," he remarked.

"The word 'please' doesn't absolve you from the fact that you're ordering employees around," he said.

"I don't want staff put in a position that they have nine bosses," Stratman said. "You, as a council, can direct them to do anything you want. As long as it's legal. I want to make sure it comes from the whole council.

"We have a chain of command and we'll follow it as long as I'm mayor," Stratman said.

Rhodes called a follow-up e-mail Stratman sent to council members an attempt to "intimidate" members by citing the Open Meetings Law.

The mayor said his e-mail was advising council members to be careful to make sure their use of e-mail did not violate the state's Open Meetings Law.

"I was giving you the advice our attorney gave me. I wasn't trying to intimidate," Stratman said.

Section 610.025 of the Missouri Sunshine Law requires any member who transmits a message relating to public business to also send the message to either the public office computer or the custodian of records. In most cities, the custodian is the city clerk. The provision applies whenever a message is sent to a majority of the board's members, including the sender. Any such messages are a public record.

"I think when you conduct business and plan strategy by e-mail, it's a violation of the Sunshine Law," Stratman said later. "If you're going to discuss city business you ought to do it in an open meeting, not in front of a computer screen.

"I don't like e-mails for that reason. I like to do business directly or by phone," Stratman said, noting that there's a risk that someone might try to do "a Matt Blunt," noting the problems the former governor had over e-mail records.