You've Got Mail!

Well, by now all of yinz have heard about this little bit of alleged cyber-snooping:

Some Pittsburgh City Council members think someone's peeking at their e-mails. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration insists the alleged snooping is a figment of council's imagination.

That's the standoff that emerged yesterday from debate on legislation sponsored by Councilman William Peduto that would require the sign-off of the top city lawyer and Ethics Hearing Board chair before anyone could browse the e-mail in-box of an elected official or director.

"If there are people who are reading our e-mails ...," began Mr. Peduto.

"And you know there are," interrupted Councilwoman Tonya Payne.

"... They're going to be referred to the District Attorney" under the new policy, Mr. Peduto continued.

And while City CIS denies it, let me assuage Council's fears that they are being spied on: you are. I should know, it's my job.

Here's what I've uncovered:

* Councilmen Peduto and Dowd have had an ongoing email thread about which Star Trek Captain is better, Kirk or Picard. (Surprisingly, Peduto says "Picard").

* Councilman Motznik has replied to 35 spam emails about "How to regrow your hair" and three about "Xtending your P3N1S 51ze".

* Councilwoman Harris has forwarded on 382 picture of dogs with stupid captions.

* Council President Doug Shields has only sent one email, but it was 5,389,203 words long.

* Councilwoman Smith believes that if she forwards a certain chain email, Bill Gates will give her $5.

* Councilwoman Payne prints off all her emails, writes a response on the printed copy, and sends the response via USPS.

* Both Councilmen Burgess and Kraus actually use their email for Council related business, which makes their emails totally useless to read.

Still, to be fair I've been reading the emails of the Mayor's Office staff too -- it's mostly Smurf erotica from John Verbanac.