Appraisal district board minutes are public information

Q: Our appraisal district board of directors met recently. The secretary of the board keeps resisting my requests for a copy of the minutes of the meeting. Aren’t the minutes public information?

A: Yes, the minutes are public information. 
As luck would have it, in 2018, the Office of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts published and posted online, in searchable portable document format, the “Appraisal District Director’s Manual.” And thanks for your question. Before I went looking for an answer, I did not know such a manual existed, and that it was posted so that anyone with a high speed internet connection could read it.
On page 31 of the manual, under the header, Texas Open Meetings Act, please find these paragraphs:
A governmental body must give written notice of the date, hour, place and subject of each meeting. The Open Meetings Act requires the posting of notices within certain time periods. It provides for posting meeting notices or adding agenda items for an already posted meeting when there is an emergency or when there is an urgent public necessity. The Open Meetings Act should be consulted regarding the place, content and the deadlines of postings.
For each meeting, a governmental body must prepare and keep minutes or make a recording. The minutes must state the subject of each deliberation and indicate each vote, order, decision or other action taken. These minutes and recordings of an open meeting are public records and must be available for public inspection and copying on request.

Q: According to the Texas Secretary of State’s website, these are two of the qualifications for sheriff: that a person must live in the county for six months and be registered to vote in the county. Can an individual be appointed to serve the unexpired term of the previous sheriff if they own a house in the county but don’t reside in the county and are not registered to vote in the county?

A: The qualifications for an interim appointee are the same as the qualifications for a candidate who runs in a regular election.
Please refer to the Texas Constitution, Art. XVI, Sec. 14, Civil Officers; Residence; Location of Offices, which says: “civil officers shall reside within the State; and all district or county officers within their districts or counties, and shall keep their offices at such places as may be required by law; and failure to comply with this condition shall vacate the office so held.”

Q: Can our police chief use a computer on his police department desk or use his city-issued smart phone in his office or at some other location to post campaign-related stuff to social media?

A: The Texas Ethics Commission, in the Aug. 16 issue of the Texas Register, addresses “Whether a public officer may use government resources for political advertising” in Ethics Advisory Opinion EAO-550. The summary opinion is worded as follows:
“A public officer, including a statewide officer, legislator, county officer, municipal officer or school district officer, would be prohibited from using government resources, such as the officer’s office in a government building, to create a photograph, video or other communication for political advertising because the officer has custody or possession of the government resources by virtue of holding the public office.”

Q: How do most newspapers handle felony arrests? Do they publish the name of a suspect before the arraignment?
A: Texas Press Association does not track how member newspapers handle felony arrests. 
At TPA conventions, members do compare notes about such things and that is one of the great values in attending. Imagine yourself, giving and taking with peers about the triumphs, pitfalls and even the humdrum of producing a newspaper. 
Let it suffice to say, I’ve heard too many times to count that information in an arrest report may not be 100 percent accurate and that a great many newspapers don’t have a lawyer on retainer to help deal with inaccurate information if it gets printed.
Now, to your question: I would venture to guess most community newspapers generally wait for the arraignment before naming a suspect. But you need more than that, so I hereby refer you to “Law & The Media in Texas,” a publication by David McHam, the now-retired print journalism instructor and newspaperman. Use this link to find it: texaspress.com/publications. 
Once you’re there, find the article, “Guidelines for Handling the Police Story,” written by now-deceased Tommy Miller, a former managing editor of the Houston Chronicle and the Beaumont Enterprise. Miller describes the job of crime reporting and makes recommendations that are sure to come in handy.