Kelley Shannon is the executive director of the Austin-based nonprofit Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
As we watch over our government, it’s often about the money.
Are taxpayer dollars being spent wisely on social programs, road projects, and employee pay? Can we review government contracts with outside organizations? What are the details of the bond proposals on the election ballot?
Long-established state open government laws—the Texas Public Information Act and the Texas Open Meetings Act—help us answer these questions and prevent misconduct.
As we celebrated National Sunshine Week, March 15-21, we honored our transparency laws and learned how to keep them effective.
Beyond uncovering financial waste and fraud, journalists and vigilant citizens use these laws to access videos related to suspected crimes against children, identify finalists for top positions in cities and school districts, and assess emergency response efforts after the tragic Hill Country floods.
The Texas Public Information Act and the Open Meetings Act are over 50 years old and continue to adapt to modern challenges.
Open government advocates worked with legislators last year to establish stricter rules for public officials handling records requests. There are now greater consequences when a government fails to respond to a request.
Another new law requires that public meeting notices be posted at least three business days before the meeting, instead of 72 hours.
This prevents a notice from being overlooked if it is first posted on a weekend. This common-sense law also requires that if a budget will be discussed at the meeting, a copy of the proposed budget must be posted publicly in advance.
There’s always more work to better equip citizens and prevent public officials from undermining transparency laws through loopholes and manipulation.
Those who need to sue to access public information should be reimbursed for attorneys’ fees if they win. Governments that hire private lawyers for public records requests must reveal their identities and payment details.
There should also be penalties for governments that abuse Texas’s attorney general’s open records ruling system.
The attorney general’s office functions as an arbitrator by issuing decisions when governments try to withhold information. State law assumes records are accessible unless an exception permits confidentiality. Generally, a government cannot unilaterally withhold information and must request permission from the attorney general’s open records division to do so.
Unfortunately, many requests for rulings are made even when the information is publicly available and should be released promptly. Bad-faith ruling requests increase the attorney general’s workload and result in weeks or months of delays for the requesters.
Finally, fees for public records can be high, sometimes reaching thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. If an estimated fee is too steep, it can discourage a requester from proceeding with the inquiry, allowing the government to avoid sharing information and keeping it confidential.
In some cases, requesters must pay the costs upfront, and then the government attempts to hide the information by seeking an attorney general’s ruling.
This means the requester’s money remains in the government’s account for weeks or months until a decision is made.
Money greatly influences transparent government. It’s crucial to oversee finances and resist all forms of waste and abuse. Protecting the free flow of information ensures that the government remains accountable to its citizens.