Frontlines

AG rules on candidate’s conversation with reporter

BELTON —  A justice of the peace did not automatically resign by informing a newspaper reporter on Dec. 31 that he was running for another office, Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled.

The AG was responding to a request from the Bell County attorney who asked whether the JP’s statement to the newspaper amounted to a resignation.

“Assuming that the private conversation did not result in any publication of the information on Dec. 31, a finder of fact could reasonably conclude that there was no announcement on Dec. 31,” the AG wrote in Opinion No. GA-0210.

Under article XVI of the Texas Constitution, section 65, automatic resignation is triggered in one two ways — announcing one’s candidacy or in fact becoming a candidate. The opinion said “We are not aware of any judicial or attorney general opinion addressing whether an office holder’s statement made privately to a reporter constitutes an announcement under article XVI, section 65.  However, prior opinions of the office indicate that an announcement must be both certain and public to trigger automatic resignation.”

Brownsville bars reporters

BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville Independent School District officials may have violated open government laws by keeping news reporters out of an otherwise public meeting, The Brownsville Herald reported.

School bus drivers were protesting a decision to suspend 170 jobs for the summer.

They, along with the public, were invited into a meeting with administration officials, but police officers with the school district barred the media from entering the building.

School district officials refused to say who gave the order.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Drue Brown, the school district spokeswoman, told the Herald. “... That’s all we are going to say to it.”

City releases settlement deal

FOREST HILL — The city of Forest Hill has agreed to pay former City Manager David Vestal $350,000 to settle his complaint that he was fired illegally, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The settlement is more than four times Vestal’s $85,000 annual salary. The city also will pay his $12,500 legal bill and pay him for unused sick leave and vacation time, according to the settlement.

Vestal, city manager since 1995, asserted that Mayor Pro Tem Malinda Miller and council members Gladys Hardeman, Mustafa Sami and Carl Holmes violated the Texas Open Meetings Act at the June 8 council meeting when he was fired.

Mayor polls members outside public meeting

FORT WORTH — Mayor Mike Moncrief approached a majority of city council members asking whether after months of complaints it was time for City Manager Gary Jackson to go, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Councilman Clyde Picht told the newspaper he had questioned whether Moncrief may have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by polling the council outside a public meeting.

ACLU sues state over vote system access

AUSTIN — The American Civil Liberties Union has sued seven state officials in an attempt to force Texas voting system examiners to hold their meetings in public, The Associated Press reported.

The examiners study voting technology, such as electronic voting machines, and recommend to the secretary of state which ones should be certified for use in Texas. The ACLU said that in the past few years the secretary of state routinely adopted the examiners’ recommendations but rejected attempts by members of the public to observe the meetings, claiming the group is not subject to the states open meeting law, AP reported.

The defendants named in the lawsuit are Secretary of State Geoffrey Connor, Attorney General Greg Abbott and five of six examiners (one who was not present at a meeting was omitted from the lawsuit). A Texas voter, Jon Lebkowsky of Austin, is named as a plaintiff with the ACLU.

Austin district releases notes

AUSTIN — Austin Independent School District officials released documents last month that they originally fought to keep private, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The district sued Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in November, about two weeks after he ruled that they must disclose the documents regarding an internal investigation into senior Sgt. Scott Shauger, an district police officer whom the district fired for falsifying his time card. The report shows Shauger, hired in 1993, was paid about $1,000 for time he did not work in May 2003.

School officials, who spent about $5,000 in lawyer fees, released the documents after getting the go-ahead from the office of the Travis County district attorney.

County meets in pairs to discuss budget issues

LUFKIN — In July, Angelina County commissioners risked violating the Texas Open Meetings Act by meeting in private with Sheriff Kent Hensoh regarding his proposed $5.6 million budget for 2005, a freedom of information attorney told the Lufkin Daily News. The sheriff requested the meetings with pairs of commissioners

Council drops public comments without vote

MAGNOLIA — Four members of the Magnolia City Council may have met illegally when they decided to eliminate public comment from a council meeting, according to a freedom of information attorney, The (Conroe) Courier reported.

Council members Patsy Williams, Dave Sutherland, Ruth Ann Lott and Ronthe Chumley each signed a letter sent to Jane Miller, former city manager asking her to remove public comment from the agenda until further notice.

The letter may constitute an illegal deliberation under the state’s Open Meetings Act, according to an attorney with the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.