Promote Open Records
Overview: Texas law and policy provide that each person is entitled at all times, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, to complete information about the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees.
Problem: Politicization wrongly affects fair decision-making. Open Records requests must be treated in a non-partisan manner with transparency, fairness and legal scholarship, understanding the presumption for disclosure. For example, the Attorney General was mistaken in his opinion allowing secrecy on school use-of-force policies. His attempted justifications didn’t warrant over-riding the presumption of the people’s right to know. This is particularly true when minors are involved. Courts and parents have rights to know, as well as the public in general. Disclosure promotes deterrence, safety and efficacy, including better recordkeeping and evaluation of effectiveness of policies. Open records spur public debate regarding appropriateness of force against minors, just as open records serve the interests of justice and democracy generally.
Solution: Remove partisan, political influences from office leadership, stop poaching of key matters from the hands of career people, require written policies, procedures and training, and allow the career lawyers to apply the presumption and laws fairly. Recently, the Texas AG conceded that it should have tracked how often it issues similar rulings on withholding data, and should be educating requesting entities as to the basics of the law. The AG should make sure governing entities are reminded of rulings they’ve already received. This is an obvious first step in preventing abuse and delay in disclosure. The AG’s spokesman conceded in December 2009 that the Attorney General doesn’t track how often the office issues similar rulings, telling the Corpus Christi Caller-Times: “there are certain rulings for information that’s not only similar but nearly identical to the extent that there is a pattern, we don’t really keep numbers or statistics.” The office of Attorney General must return to its duty of protecting the People of Texas.
