Frontlines

Garland to pay daily $99,000 settlement

GARLAND — The city has agreed to pay The Dallas Morning News $99,000 to settle a 10-year-old open records dispute.

The deal will keep the city from going to court a third time over its refusal to release public information about the reassignment of a public official, the newspaper reported.

The newspaper will give $10,000 of the settlement to charity.

The dispute began in 1993 when the newspaper sought records related to the reassignment of finance director James Hager. The city said the documents were drafts and sued to keep them confidential and exempt from disclosure.

A judge ruled in 1994 that the records should be open and granted the News $43,000 in attorney fees. Garland appealed and received a new trial. Two years ago a jury ruled in favor of the newspaper and awarded the News $160,000 in attorney fees. The city again appealed and was granted a new trial but last month opted to settle.

In January 2000 the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Garland was wrong to withhold the documents and in May the city released them.

City must pay paper’s legal fees in meetings’ case

LAREDO — A district judge denied the city’s motion objecting to an earlier order that it must pay legal fees to the Laredo Morning Times for the newspaper’s involvement in a case where the judge ruled the council members violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The newspaper intervened in the lawsuit brought by a local attorney against the mayor and five council members over an Aug. 17, 2001 meeting.

The judge ruled in June that the council did “technically” violate the act during the meeting. He ordered the city to pay the Times $35,000 and the plaintiff $16,000 for legal fees.

In a separate case, a visiting judge on July 16 ordered the city to pay the same attorney, who was the plaintiff in the meetings case, $17,250 for fees incurred in a lawsuit he filed on behalf of the former police chief. In that case the former chief filed 18 open records requests since October 2002 and alleged that the city violated the Texas Public Information Act.

Newspaper challenges secret Enron hearings

HOUSTON — The Houston Chronicle lost a bid to make public the record of a closed hearing in July and two more last month in the criminal case against three former Enron executives.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt denied the newspaper’s motion, saying there are “matters that do not need to be discussed in public in ways that embarrasses or humiliates the government or the defense and particularly the court.”

The judge also denied the Chronicle’s request for access to the hearings and security officers told a reporter and lawyer to leave the court hallway or be detained.

Pecos daily files meeting complaint on county

PECOS — The Pecos Enterprise filed a complaint last month with the Reeves County district attorney’s office alleging that the county commissioners may have violated the Open Meetings Act during discussions on the county’s detention center.

The newspaper said the notice of the emergency meeting did not comply with the law and failed to identify what topic would be discussed.

The county called a special meeting July 30 to discuss a new contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

State welfare cuts on hold after TOMA complaint

AUSTIN — An advocacy group won a temporary block to a new state rule that could cut Medicaid benefits to 25,000 people after questioning whether the Texas Workforce Commission violated the Open Meetings Act.

A state judge issued a temporary injunction Aug. 29 that blocks the rule that would have put low-income adults in risk of losing government-funded health insurance. A hearing is set for Oct. 27.

The Center for Public Policy Priorities challenged the process the commission used to develop the rule, saying it was done by emergency order without proper notice.

County Democrat chides court for discussing personnel

HEBRONVILLE — The Jim Hogg County Democratic Party chairman blasted commissioners court during a July 28 meeting for what he said were violations of the Open Meetings Act.

He told the commissioners that they had wrongly discussed county personnel in open sessions July 16 and 21 and had not properly listed the items on the agenda. The chairman said a commissioner mentioned the employee by name and discussed her performance record during budget hearings open to the public.

Judge issues gag on kidnapping trial 

GILMER — An Upshur County state district judge issued a gag order last month on all parties involved in the trial of a woman accused of kidnapping her children and eluding authorities for a decade.

The judge prohibited attorneys, witnesses and others connected with the case from speaking publicly about it.

The woman, who was working as a newspaper editor under an assumed name in Palo Verde, Calif., is accused of abducting her daughters, age 3 and 6, in 1987. They were reunited with their father in February but declined to identify their mother’s whereabouts.

School board took contract vote in executive session

NEW BRAUNFELS — The Comal school district in May told reporters that the superintendent’s job was safe even though the school board had moments earlier voted in executive session to buy out his contract.

The school board agreed to a confidential $60,000 buy-out of the last three years on the superintendent’s contract provided that he announce his resignation by July 1, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

The district made the agreement public last month after the attorney general’s office ruled that it was an open record.

CLEAT seeks probe on city’s negotiations 

VIDOR — Lawyers for the police union filed a complaint with the Orange County district attorney’s office charging the city with violating the Open Meetings Act.

An attorney for the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas said the union is seeking an investigation into whether the city council on May 22 tried to pass off a meeting as a negotiating session for mid-contract salary increases, the Orange Leader reported.

The city said a quorum was not present at the meeting.