Times-Call (Longmont): Some might argue that attempts to recover and make public Longmont City Council member Joan Peck’s lost emails are a foolish, wasted effort, considering that there’s likely nothing worth the public’s interest in those emails anyway.

There might be no way of knowing that for sure now.

Peck’s correspondence with a constituent, which is considered a public record in Colorado, was lost when her hard drive crashed. She had moved the emails onto a hard drive because, she says, her email provider charges for storage. (Note to council: Even AOL, the internet service of the last century, offers unlimited email storage.)

And why was Peck’s email on a private server? Because she wanted to keep it hidden from the Times-Call. At least that’s what the resident told the Times-Call, and Peck hasn’t publicly denied it.

Newspapers disseminate information, which means that, by extension, Peck didn’t want the public knowing about those emails, either. Her fellow council members remain in the dark also. Councilman Gabe Santos filed an open records request with the city clerk for those emails and was denied because the emails were not available. A Times-Call request was denied for the same reason.

Yet Peck told fellow council members last Wednesday, “if you want to look at my emails, have at it.”

Umm. They’re not there.

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