City revises policy regarding city issued cellphones

CLINTONVILLE – Employees who use a city issued cellphone for city business and personal use will now have the option to keep the cellphone when they are no longer employed by the city.
The Clintonville Common Council approved at its April 14 meeting, revisions to its Separation from Employment policy, specifying the new cellphone stipulations.
The matter was discussed at the April 13 Clintonville Finance & Personnel Committee meeting. At the meeting, Clintonville City Administrator Caz Muske told the committee that she was looking to revise the policy due to a longstanding employee who is retiring in May.
“He has historically used his personal phone as a work phone, part of our policy allows to do that, however currently in our policy, in the event that you separate from the employer, you then have to give that device back,” Muske said. “However, this person has been with the city for 30 years, so he questions if the council would consider revamping the policy.”
Because of the longstanding employment of the employee, Muske said as long as the employee is willing to have the phone subject to open records requests if any are ever filed, she would be in agreement with the policy revisions to allow the employee to keep the phone. She said Clintonville City Attorney Keith Steckbauer approved the language in the proposed revised policy.

Committee Chairman Greg Rose asked if the data could be copied off the phone before the retirement of the employee. That data could then be stored for potential open records requests.
While that option was not previously discussed, Muske said that option could be a possibility.
Committee member Brandon Braden said he would prefer that option because there is nothing to prevent the employee from deleting items from the phone after their retirement.
“I’m not saying that would happen, but if we don’t have the ability to get the data before the employee leaves and separates employment, I would be concerned about anything for legal reasons, not having that device or that data,” Braden said.
Committee member Tammy Strey-Hirt asked what kind of data is on the phone.
Muske said the data is “anything that is correspondence communication dealing with work related items.” She added that some employees have their own personal cellphone, as well as a city issued phone for work-related items.
Braden questioned whether the city could compel a former employee to supply their cellphone for an open records request after they retire if they are the sole owner of the cellphone.
Caz said the city currently owns the cellphone in question and any agreement the employee would sign would include language that would stipulate the employee would have to make the cellphone available in the future if requested.
“That’s why we’re looking to revamp this, because the way that it’s written, because the city owns this property, we expect him to return it,” Muske said.
Clintonville Police Chief Craig Freitag said the only data on the cellphone that would be open to open records requests would be work-related data.

Policy revisions
The revisions to the policy regarding cellphones stipulate that:
• The employee shall pay the City the fair market value (FMV) of the device at the time of separation. Fair market value shall be determined by the City based on reasonable market comparison and may consider any remaining provider credits, subsidies, installment balances, or contractual obligations associated with the device.
• The device shall not be wiped, reset, altered, or otherwise modified prior to review and written authorization by the City. The City reserves the right to access, preserve, copy, and/or retain all City data, communications, and records stored on the device in accordance with law.
• All City-related data and communications on the device remain the property of the City and remain subject to the City’s IT policies, Records Retention Schedule, and applicable Wisconsin Public Records Law requirements.

• Final transfer of ownership shall occur only after the City confirms that all City data has been properly secured or removed in accordance with City policy and applicable law.