Here’s the latest on El Paso’s open records request (though it doesn’t deal specifically with El Paso’s case).
Here’s a little background. Hearst Newspapers (and Greg Abbot, the Attorney General of the State of Texas, who is curiously absent from El Paso’s similar petition) sued Tommy Adkisson, “Individually, and Officially on Behalf of Bexar County, Texas as County Commissioner Precinct 4” for emails sent from his personal email account that dealt with county business.
Texas Third Court of Appeals rejected Commissioner Adkisson’s argument that his personal emails weren’t anyone’s business but his own.
The trial court denied the Commissioner’s motion and granted the Attorney General’s and Hearst’s motions and awarded attorneys’ fees to the Attorney General and to Hearst. We will affirm because we conclude that information in the Commissioner’s official capacity e-mails is necessarily connected with the transaction of the County’s official business and the County owns the information under the Local Government Code; thus, the requested information satisfies the PIA’s definition of “public information.”
From my under-educated seat in the peanut gallery, it looks like it’s all over but the crying for the City. Of course, all those emails have probably been flushed down the toilet by now, and I’m not sure that we’ll uncover them, or ever prove that our City Government, with the best of intentions, broke the law for some downtown real estate developers who also happen to be big campaign donors.
Did you notice that the court awarded attorneys’ fees? The longer this drags out, the more the City is liable to pay for it.
Also, how does the appearance of a corrupt city administration affect efforts to attract industry? Maybe we should be going after businesses that can benefit from a corrupt government. Like loan sharks, maybe. Or prostitution. Or gambling.
Thoughts on yesterday’s court decision:
The judges ruled that Adkisson, the San Antonio official being sued, must turn over emails between him and a political activist.
In Stephanie Townsend’s collection of emails obtained through her open-records request, I found one in which an activist clearly was corresponding with Joyce Wilson about the best ways to quash a citizens’ petition against the ballpark. Wilson had forwarded the email to Richarda Momsen, asking for information pertinent to the activist’s suggestions. But before forwarding it, Wilson cut-and-pasted it so that the ID of the writer was obscured.
If you know El Paso’s players, including activists, it’s pretty clear from information in the email who the writer is. But the publishable proof is in the pudding–i.e., the original email sent to Wilson.
I entered a claim in Townsend-Allala’s suit, as a member of the media, asking for that particular email. Wilson responded to the court in writing, claiming it doesn’t exist.
Of course it does. I’ll make sure that Marty Schladen of the Times has the info if legal matters go further and he wants to get that email, himself. (I don’t have a dog in this race anymore, but long ago posted the email on Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/174105362/Joyce-Wilson-Email
More things to mull: the recent court rule that appears to favor Townsend-Allala came about only because the San Antonio Express News, via big bucks from its owner, Hearst in New York City, sued the guy withholding the emails. This is old-style First Amendment advocacy, courtesy the press-that-used-to-have-dough-and-some-still do. In El Paso, the Times never seriously touched the closed-city-emails matter back when they could have shown some guts to do so (they didn’t even sign on to the suit!). KVIA (involved in the suit) told me their main offices did not want to spend the money. The Diario (co-signers) declined to provide funding. As an individual freelancer I have about $13.49 to invest in such things. It fell to former journo Townsend-Allala, who’s now just a private citizen, to pick up the First Amendment cudgels. Nationally, she deserves a Columbia Journalism Review laurel. In town, maybe some appreciation from people who care about the media, whoever those people (besides Rich Wright) might be.
Here’s the court’s ruling in the San Antonio case, for those interested in the very close similarities to El Paso.
http://www.expressnews.com/file/833/833-Opinion-on-Appeal.PDF
Thank you both for the update on this issue. An award for Townsend-Allala is a great idea.
Stephanie deserves more than an award. I think a donation is in order to help repay her costs would be a good idea.