Our view: Why Open Records matter to us and to you

As we have written before, Open Records and Open Meetings laws exist for the good of the public, providing much-needed accountability from public officials and scrutiny for the spending of taxpayer dollars. If these laws are ignored or circumvented, it undermines already shaky confidence in government.

Media outlets as well as citizens rely on these laws to access information they believe the public is entitled to see. Sometimes, this is a smooth process. Over the past few weeks, we have asked for and received the salaries of those employees making a minimum of $75,000 annually from the City of Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas Tech and local school districts (Lubbock, Frenship and Lubbock-Cooper). We thank these entities for their prompt and courteous cooperation.

Sometimes, this is not so easy. For example, we have asked the New Deal Independent School District for a number of documents which we believe fall under the purview of open records. There appears to be controversy within the district, and we believe these documents would provide context and explanation for the public discourse. The district disagrees, saying the documents are exempt under open records and has appealed to the Texas Attorney General’s office for a ruling.

Meanwhile, we wait … as do the taxpayers of New Deal.

Our hope is the AG’s office will see the public interest involved and rule that the documents should be released. If and when that happens, our readers will be the first to know. This is our hope despite our story earlier this week indicating the Open Records Division of AG Ken Paxton’s office has ruled against making records public in half the cases this year. That’s a 10% increase from Paxton’s first year in office in 2015.

This is an unfortunate trend that has the effect of diluting much-needed accountability while simultaneously emboldening impacted agencies to increasingly seek exemptions. An investigation by the Austin American-Statesman found the “share of released records has declined across nearly every type of requested information, from school and college to public utility and transportation records” during Paxton’s tenure.

In other words, more and more records are being withheld, and more agencies are seeking AG opinions in an attempt to shield information from the public. Reasonable questions do not get answered, which can mean the public fills in the narrative with its own details. The most recent numbers indicate the odds are pretty good for taxpayer-supported entities to keep documents out of public view.

Some of this is the result of recently passed legislation establishing new exemptions. For example, there are now 72 categories of exemptions under the Texas Government Code. In some instances, this makes sense such as sensitive personal details like Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

The danger should be apparent. Once some entity is successful in keeping records private, it will become a template for other entities involved in similar situations going forward. It can be difficult enough sometimes just to procure obviously public documents. Making the process harder with additional hoops to jump through will ultimately harm the public, causing people to wonder what is being hidden and why.

In the face of this, it is more important than ever for newsrooms to aggressively seek the public records to which they believe the public is entitled. As the public’s representative entrusted with the public watchdog function, be assured that will continue to be a priority – regardless of where the trail leads.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Why Open Records laws matter to us and matter to you