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The city of Big Lake on Jan. 21 voted not to go along with the cities of Rockport, Sugar Land, Wichita Falls, Pflugerville and 15 individual city officials in their lawsuit seeking to strip criminal penalties from the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Plaintiffs say the criminal penalties chill their right to free speech under the First Amendment.
Big Lake city council voted on Dec. 1 to join the other cities in the lawsuit, but on Jan. 21 voted to withdraw after Randy Mankin, publisher of the weekly Big Lake Wildcat, suggested that if changing the law is their goal, the Texas Legislature, not the federal court system, would be a more appropriate way to proceed.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 14 in U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, in Pecos, was served Jan. 13 on Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, giving the state of Texas 20 working days to answer.
On Feb. 2, Texas Solicitor General James C. Ho filed a motion to dismiss the cities from the lawsuit, arguing that cities, as “creatures of the state” rather than natural persons, have no standing to file such a lawsuit. A ruling on the motion is pending.
Similar lawsuits were defeated at the trial court level in Pecos and most recently in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 10, when the court ruled en banc to dismiss the case as moot and meritless.
Texas Press Association, Texas Daily Newspaper Association, Texas Association of Broadcasters, The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, and other open government advocacy groups and individuals, including current and former public officials, have sided with the state and the attorney general’s office in opposition to the lawsuit.
The main point of unity among open government advocates is the fact that criminal penalties in the open meetings law work well as a deterrent to officials tempted to deliberate and decide the public’s business outside of properly noticed meetings.
“We support the attorney general’s efforts on behalf of open government,” said Fred Hartman, chairman of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association / Texas Press Association Legislative Advisory Committee.
“Elected officials are free to say whatever they want, but when they’re conducting the public’s business, it should be done in the open, not in secret,” Hartman added.
The Open Meetings Act has worked wonderfully since 1973, and there’s no reason to turn back the clock to the days when Texas government was less accountable to its citizens.”
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