Charlotte City Employees Asked To Turn Over Light Rail Transit E-Mails

Light rail opponents want every Charlotte city employee to turn over emails about the half cent sales tax.

Jay Morrison, the man who started the push to get the tax back on the ballot, filed the request. The city has to comply or Morrison can ask a judge to order compliance.

The city has more than 6,000 employees. Now, they have to go through every email, find ones involving the tax, and make them public.

City attorney Mac McCarley says it's a major project. He said, "It's a huge resource strain to have to pull this together. The law says to do it, but it's spending a lot of taxpayer time and money."

It's hard to tell exactly how many e-mails this request involves. Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) C.E.O. Ron Tober assumes he alone will have to dig up about 2,500 of those e-mails.

According to state law, there's no official deadline. City employees have to produce the e-mails within a reasonable time period.