Meridian Twp. accidentally shares resident emails

MONDAY, Dec. 9 — A few hundred Meridian Township residents might have to sort through some extra spam messages in their inbox after township officials accidentally sent their email addresses out to other local residents.

Meridian Township Treasurer Phil Deschaine apologized earlier this afternoon after his office on Friday had inadvertently shared the email addresses of 370 township residents in an email sent to other township residents. No additional personal information was shared and Deschaine is labeling the incident as an “honest mistake.”

“Worst case scenario, these people might get their email addresses put on to some type of spam email list and have some more unwanted messages coming in,” Deschaine said. “I’ve had several calls now and talked with a few people. Nobody has had that problem yet, but they’re all appreciative that we’re owning the problem.”

A township email blast sent Friday — a standard reminder to pay winter property taxes — would have typically protected the recipient's email address from being released to everyone else on the mailing list. But Deschaine said his office was short-staffed and “slipped up” by accidentally forgetting to take those protective measures.

As a result, 370 email addresses of township residents were shared with those same 370 township residents.

“There was no banking information or tax information disclosed,” Deschaine added. “It was just a form letter and it didn’t reveal any confidential information at all — just the email addresses. We’ve apologized and we’re already taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I do take responsibility for what happened here.”

Deschaine was elected last November to replace outgoing treasurer and current state Rep. Julie Brixie. He was selected among six applicants — and three finalists — for the $71,000-a-year job. Aside from the potential for extra junk mail, he doesn’t envision any additional consequences from Friday’s township email release.

Still, those with additional questions or concerns can call Meridian Township at 517-853-4140.