Snyder daily sues county over meeting violations

SNYDER — The Snyder Daily News filed a lawsuit Aug. 24 alleging that the Scurry County Commissioners Court has repeatedly violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The suit claims the commissioners reached decisions without posting meetings and made decisions that circumvented the law.

“Even when executive session or closed meetings are allowed for deliberations, all decisions or votes must be taken in an open meeting,” publisher Roy McQueen said. “We regret having to take such a drastic action. In more than 40 years in the news business, we have never had to file a formal complaint. We have successfully urged voluntary compliance through private discussions and editorials, but this time to no avail.

“Because of the blatant disregard of the public’s right to know, we are asking the district court to permanently enjoin the commissioners court from transacting business behind closed doors.”

Attorney Don Richards of McWhorter, Cobb and Johnson is representing the newspaper.

The case centers around a meeting where the county discussed taking back operation of the Scurry County Coliseum.

Arlington e-mail battle heads to court docket

ARLINGTON — City officials have filed a lawsuit challenging a recent attorney general’s opinion that said city-related e-mails to council members’ private computers should be public.

The city has claimed that it does not own the computer to which the e-mails were sent and that releasing the messages may violate privacy concerns.

The city also has said that city council members conduct business only during public meetings.

School district must release information 

MIDLOTHIAN — Records showing the number of coaches employed by the school district and their respective salaries are public in spite of a lawsuit challenging Title IX compliance here, according to an attorney general’s opinion.

Today Newspapers filed an open records’ request for the information in April but the district sought an opinion because of pending litigation.

The district released the information but omitted parts of the request after receiving the opinion.

Laredo lawyer challenges city’s closed meeting topic

LAREDO — A lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the city claiming that an Aug. 24 budget hearing violated the Open Meetings Act.

The city council went into executive session to confer with its attorney, even though a closed session was not posted on the agenda.

Three council members abstained from attending the closed session involving the city’s hotel-motel tax law.

Ironically one of three was on the city council in 1997 when he and two other members were indicted over open meetings violations. The charges were later dropped after the three agreed to attend training on open government.

The city attorney told the Laredo Morning Times that the council could meet with its attorney any time it wanted.

Rowlett council comes under meeting scrutiny

ROWLETT — A city councilwoman planned to file a complaint with the district attorney’s office claiming meetings on Aug. 1 and Aug. 14 violated state open government laws.

The city’s finance committee met to discuss insurance proposals and asked members of the public to leave each of the meetings, which also did not include a posted agenda. Three council members serve on the committee.

The district attorney told the Rowlett Lakeshore Times that the meetings appeared to violate the Open Meetings Act because they gave the impression that the full council would rubber stamp committee decisions since all but two councilmen serve on the committee.

Auditor’s report remains closed pending probe

MIDLAND — The attorney general’s office ruled that an auditor’s report on alleged misuse of Midland County funds should remain confidential.

The Midland Reporter-Telegram filed an open records request for the report last May and the county asked the AG’s office to rule on whether it should be released.

The report was handed over to the Texas Rangers, who are investigating allegations of the Midland County district attorney’s misuse of a forfeiture fund. Officials told the newspaper they hoped to bring the case before a grand jury this month.

The AG’s office said the report was excepted from disclosure because an investigation was pending and the releases might interfere with the case.

City keeps copying fees in place over objections

CORPUS CHRISTI — The city apparently plans to keep its policy of charging $5 for police reports even though a state agency recommended otherwise.

Hadassah Schloss, open records administrator for the General Services Commission, recently sent a letter to the city saying the fee was too high and that it can only charge 10 cents a page for copying. The agency does not have enforcement functions.

Schloss told the Caller Times that many cities confuse the exception to the copy fee rule that allows police departments to charge $4 for accident reports but not offense reports.

The city estimated it would generate $82,000 from the fee this year and would lose about $21,700 if the $5 fee was lowered.