State officials support security exemptions 

AUSTIN — The state Task Force on Homeland Security supports adding some sensitive information under the exemptions in the Texas Public Information Act.

Land Commissioner David Dewhurst, who heads the task force appointed by the governor, said he supported limiting public access to information such as design plans and engineering data for public utilities.

The task force may recommend to state lawmakers “a small tweak to our information act that wouldn’t affect the press” but that would “logistically keep information out of the hands of the bad guys,” Dewhurst said.

His comments came on the heels of an earlier statement by Attorney General John Cornyn who suggested that legislators study whether Texas needs a security exemption to its open government laws. Cornyn said his cyberterrorism task force may make a similar recommendation to the Legislature, such as is included in the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Donnis Baggett, who chairs the Texas Daily Newspaper Association/TPA Legislative Advisory Committee, and other FOI advocates opposed any such changes to state laws.

“This could be a very troublesome development,” Baggett, who is the editor and publisher of The Bryan/College Station Eagle, told The Associated Press. “There are some officials out there who would love nothing more than to wrap themselves in a flag and say ‘This is for security reasons that I can’t release this information.’ And the recourse to that would be, I assume, fairly limited.

“I’m not underestimating the importance of security concerns, but there’s also a very real concern about government’s dealings with the people.”

Rob Wiley, president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, told an AP reporter he would want to analyze any such proposal but that “as a general proposition I don’t believe that there’s any great need to amend the Open Records Act in terms of protecting security.”

Judge issues gag order in high-profile case

GALVESTON — A state district judge issued a gag order preventing police, lawyers and witnesses from discussing a high-profile murder case with reporters.

The gag order also covered the district attorney’s office in a New York county that has been investigating the separate disappearance of the millionaire suspect’s wife.

Charles Daughtry, lawyer for The Galveston County Daily News and Texas City Sun, and Houston Chronicle Galveston bureau reporter Kevin Moran argued against the order.

Wichita Falls reconsiders closed door pay-raise votes

WICHITA FALLS — The city council has had a longstanding policy of skirting the Open Meetings Act, the Wichita Falls Times Record News reported.

The council has discussed and approved employee pay raises in closed session for as long as anyone can remember, but the current the mayor questioned the legality of that practice after studying the act.

He told the newspaper that taking votes in executive session was illegal and that he no longer felt comfortable doing that.

The city manager, who recently received a 9.5 percent pay raise, said the council had taken votes on employee salaries in secret throughout the 18 years he had been with the city.

Holy group drops lawsuit 

DALLAS — The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development filed a motion Dec. 7 to dismiss its defamation lawsuit against The Dallas Morning News, four of its reporters and parent company Belo.

The action came just three days after President George W. Bush ordered the group’s assets frozen and revealed that it served as a fund-raising source for a Palestinian terrorist group.

The Morning News published a series of articles reporting alleged links between the group and the terrorist faction.

The group had denied any participation in terrorism.

Dallas ISD must redraw voting boundaries

DALLAS — The Dallas school board violated state open meetings laws and now must completely redraw district voting boundaries to comply with a judge’s order.

The board expected to begin the process all over again this month after a judge last month voided the adoption of a new redistricting map because of repeated open meeting violations.

The judge also ordered the district to make public transcripts of secret meetings from April to September in which the issue was discussed.

Several Hispanic leaders challenged the board’s actions, which excluded the public from the redistricting discussions.

Governor hands over PUC appointee files

 AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry late last month planned to hand over more documents concerning his appointment of a new Public Utility Commission chairman.

The campaign for gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez requested the documents after questions surfaced about the appointee who worked for collapsed Houston energy giant Enron.

Perry’s staff released one version of the documents to reporters and another with some redacted information to the campaign.

The governor’s staff notified the attorney general’s office that some of the material was withheld.

AG John Cornyn later ruled that the information could not be withheld and said the governor’s office failed to comply with the 10-day deadline for responding to the open records request. The governor sued the AG but later withdrew the suit.