The city sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in an effort to prevent the release of public records related to payments made to lawyers in lawsuits against the El Paso Police Department – a move an open government expert said looks like “a ploy” to avoid releasing the documents.
The City Council voted 7-1 out of executive session Monday to sue the attorney general for an Aug. 13 ruling that stated the city is required to release documents requested by El Paso Matters in May. City Rep. Josh Acevedo voted against the lawsuit.
The city filed the lawsuit Sept. 11 – one day after El Paso Matters made the city aware that the publication knew of the ruling and inquired when the city would release the records. The council vote authorizing the city to retain outside counsel and file the suit came days after it had already filed the suit.
“The city is completely out of line in doing this and filing this lawsuit for the sole purpose of delaying the release of the information, which is unacceptable,” said Joe Larsen, a Houston-based first amendment lawyer and Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas board member.
The city has previously released redacted legal invoices related to lawsuits filed against the El Paso Police Department.
The city issued a news release after the City Council vote Monday that said it is seeking “judicial clarification” on the ruling in an effort “to ensure its compliance with state law while responsibly handling sensitive information. The lawsuit seeks clarity on what may be released to the public without compromising attorney-client communications or litigation strategies.”
The city sued the Texas attorney general in 2013 in an effort to withhold emails on government officials’ personal accounts that discussed city business. El Paso attorney Stephanie Townsend-Allala made the request for emails related to the city’s plans to demolish the former City Hall building to make way for a Triple-A baseball stadium.
The city ultimately dropped the suit and turned over the emails in compliance with a ruling from the attorney general.
“For years, the public has routinely been able to review lawyer invoices paid by the city of El Paso for lawsuits brought against the city. The records were redacted in a way to protect information about attorney work for the city, but the public could still see how taxpayer money was being spent,” El Paso Matters CEO Robert Moore said. “Now, the city is trying to claim that every dollar amount, date, word, punctuation mark and space in a legal invoice should be shielded from the people paying for those services. This secrecy attempt is an absurd reading of transparency laws and a sad moment for our community.”
The city said it would release redacted documents to El Paso Matters by the end of the week. El Paso Matters agreed to the redaction of information that is required to be withheld by law under “mandatory” exemptions when the request was submitted in May.
“They (the city) seem to be saying that the AG ordered the release of confidential attorney client communications. That doesn’t sound right to me … that looks highly misleading to me. It (the AG) permitted the city to withhold attorney client communication. So that’s a highly misleading press release,” Larsen said.
Larsen said the attorney general’s office is staffed with well-seasoned lawyers that know how to identify attorney-client privilege communications.
“The AG knows and can 100% correctly identify the attorney client privilege part of these invoices,” Larsen said. “To me, this (lawsuit) is an apparent ploy by the city to simply withhold all the communications to take advantage of the procedural option of suing the attorney general.”
At issue is an open records request filed by El Paso Matters in May, which sought copies of legal billings from private law firms hired by the city for six lawsuits brought against the city, the Police Department and individual officers that alleged a variety of misconduct by police officers.
The attorney general ruled that the city could withhold some information, but must release the remaining documents.
Filing a lawsuit against the attorney general will delay the release of the records indefinitely, Larsen said.
“It’s part of a very disturbing trend in Texas open records law. There are no transparent branches of government in Texas anymore,” Larsen said.
The post City of El Paso sues Texas attorney general over public records his office ordered open in El Paso Matters request appeared first on El Paso Matters.
Read: Read More