Jacksonville's ethics officer has instructed city employees to start saving  text messages in order to comply with state record laws, but the city's top  lawyer has countermanded the directive, saying texts don't rise to the level of  importance that requires retention.

Texts should only be used for "transitory communications" that can be safely  deleted, not for significant discussions that would need to be kept under the  state's Sunshine Laws, General Counsel Cindy Laquidara said.

Text messages have never been retained by the city, although other government  entities — in Florida and elsewhere — have deemed them public records.

The directive to begin archiving the messages came from the city's ethics  commission, which discussed the issue during a Monday night committee  meeting.

Text messages have fallen into a sort of gray area when it comes to  preserving them: Although emails are saved and provided for review, texts have  been treated more like phone calls, which aren't saved.

The state's thinking, though, has changed, according to current and former  members of the Attorney General's Office who serve on the ethics commission,  said Carla Miller, director of the city's Office of Ethics, Compliance and  Oversight.