How to make government accountable

Our Founding Fathers understood that nothing was more important to successful self-government than a robust free press.

Analysis by Donnis Baggett, Texas Press Association

Transparency and accountability weren’t political buzzwords back then, but those who crafted the framework of our republic made it clear that an unfettered press was the best watchdog for holding government accountable to its citizens.

Your Texas Press Association works year-round to protect newspapers’ ability to perform that sacred duty. Much of our time is spent defending public notices in newspapers, which are under constant attack from government officials who’d prefer to provide their own oversight.

We believe that public notices represent much more than a revenue source for newspapers; they’re important pillars of government transparency and a key element of newspapers’ identity.

That said, as the 88th session of the Texas Legislature convenes at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 10, we’ll also be engaged on other issues affecting government transparency and accountability. Here’s a brief summary of measures we hope will become law:

• Eliminating the “dead suspects” loophole used by officials to deny access to crime reports in investigations classified as “open” even though the suspect is deceased. The need for plugging this loophole has been painfully obvious in the wake of Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School tragedy.

• Restoring access to dates of birth in public records — access that was virtually eliminated seven years ago by an Austin appeals court ruling. Dates of birth are essential for confirming identities of crime suspects, eligibility of candidates for office, etc.

• Assuring access to police records such as critical incident and use-of-force reports, as well as personnel records. Again, the Uvalde horror brings urgency to law enforcement transparency issues. Legislators will be more interested in these issues than ever.

• Restoring transparency in government contracts with private businesses by addressing issues that arose after passage of SB 943 — the “Boeing Fix.” The Boeing Fix, as you’ll recall, was passed in 2019 to address a devastating Texas Supreme Court ruling that eliminated access to many government contracts with private businesses. We need to tweak the fix some more.

• Open records administrative issues — addressing access problems caused by government skeleton crews, remote government workers and outright failure to respond to public information requests. The huge increase in government employees working remotely since the COVID crisis made it harder than ever to get records that should be readily available to the public.

• Requiring open government data to be provided to the public in a searchable and sortable format. Data dumps of hundreds or thousands of pages in PDF form are difficult for investigative reporters to parse. That hamstrings our effectiveness as watchdogs.

The list of legislators who will carry this legislation isn’t set in stone yet, so stay tuned. As always, when the smoke clears we’ll give credit — and profuse thanks — to lawmakers who do the incredibly hard work of writing and passing this important legislation.

We’re not in this fight alone, thank goodness. Throughout the session your TPA team will work alongside the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, the Texas Association of Broadcasters and the Texas Sunshine Coalition in the fight for transparency and accountability reform.

We’ll also work with an even more powerful group of allies — the newspapers of the Texas Press Association. We never forget that our most influential lobbyists are our publishers and editors. For some reason or another, legislators listen harder to you than they do to us. Go figure.

So when you see TPA on your caller I.D., we hope you’ll answer the call with a question: “How can I help?” Your involvement could make the difference.

As always, thanks for all you do for your communities — and for your state. May God bless Texas and Texas newspapers.