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A Marco Island City Councilman faces charges of violating Florida public records laws in what open government experts are calling an unprecedented action by state prosecutors.

Councilman Chuck Kiester, 67, is charged with failing to maintain, preserve or allow inspection of public records from when he took office in March 2006 to March 2007, according to a summons issued by Assistant State Attorney Dean Plattner and served to Kiester on Tuesday.

The charges stem from a complaint lodged by a Marco resident in March after Kiester failed to respond to a public records request for e-mails relating to city business. Kiester acknowledged he regularly deleted e-mails about city business from his home e-mail account because he didn’t know they were considered public records.

“Based on our review we feel this is the appropriate charge based on the facts and the law,” local State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Samantha Syoen said.

The charges are for a noncriminal violation of the public records law and carry a maximum $500 fine. Kiester is not subject to suspension or removal from office as a result of the charges.

That the state attorney took any action at all startled open government experts. Since e-mails are a relatively new technology there is little legal history in such cases. Florida attorney general opinions have held for over 10 years that e-mails like the ones Kiester deleted are subject to public records laws, but rarely if ever, have charges been filed solely based on that fact, experts said.

“I would think the entire country would be interested in this,” said Bob Jarvis, a law ethics professor at Nova Southeastern University. “We’re really in uncharted waters. I think officials at every level are interested in how they can use technology.”

“This is very surprising because it’s not a normal thing that the state attorney gets involved in, especially when there’s no suggestion this was done to cover up a crime,” Jarvis added.

Adria Harper, a director at the First Amendment Foundation, a media-funded state open records organization, said this case was the first she’s heard where charges were filed against a government official for failing to retain e-mails.

Harper hoped the state attorney’s action would help give rise to what she said was needed standard government policy about e-mail maintenance. She said questions relating to e-mails and public records were one of the most popular inquiries the foundation received on its hotline.

“I would hope the message would be that we need to have a system in place regarding e-mail,” Harper said. “I’m glad that the state attorney is pursuing (the case).”

Kiester could not be reached for comment Tuesday. No one responded at his Marco Island home early Tuesday evening. City officials did not have contact with Kiester on Tuesday and were unsure whether he had hired an attorney, City Spokeswoman Lisa Douglass said.

Kiester has said deleting the e-mails was a mistake. Collier County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. David White examined Kiester’s computer in March after the councilman voluntarily supplied it for the investigation.

Kiester, who worked for 30 years as an urban planner in Gainesville before retiring to Marco, has an appearance in Collier County Court before Judge Mike Carr on Feb. 7 at 1:30 p.m.

The action taken against Kiester is similarly unprecedented in Collier County. The charges are the first filed against a sitting county municipal government official for public records or Government in the Sunshine Law violations in more than 15 years, officials from local government agencies said. It is the first case in the 10-year history of Marco Island, City Clerk Laura Litzan said.

Accusations relating to the public records and the Sunshine Law are not new to Marco Island, however. In the past year residents and councilors have repeatedly questioned each other’s compliance with the law in everything from receiving e-mails from councilor’s spouses to wondering how one councilor found out about another’s headache supposedly caused by city sewer construction.

A political battle over the city’s plans to install sewers has played itself out through Sunshine Law allegations, as well. In October, two former city councilors, John Arceri and Vickie Kelber, were cleared by the state attorney of improper communication while in office following a complaint filed by two residents opposed to citywide sewers.

Marco resident Sal Sciarrino, 77, who filed the complaint against Kiester said the complaint against Arceri and Kelber was filed by “people who hate the city.” Sciarrino said his action was intended as a response.

“What’s to be is to be,” Sciarrino said. Kiester’s “a good man and is good for the city. It’s a shame it’s come to this.”