HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — When a storm hit Houston in 2024 and devastated a number of communities, 13 Investigates realized a Houston Unbiased College District bus was caught in the midst of it on the Hardy Toll Street.
We all know some faculty buses are geared up with cameras, so 13 Investigates’ Mycah Hatfield requested the video underneath the Texas Public Info Act.
The Act permits any member of the general public, together with journalists, to request data from taxpayer-funded authorities entities. The data can embrace something from emails and textual content messages to video or reviews. By legislation, authorities companies are required to reply inside 10 enterprise days.
“The accountability is they need to both present the data or in the event that they imagine one of many exceptions apply, they’re alleged to then notify the legal professional basic for the State of Texas inside 10 days on why what exception they imagine applies,” Ryan Marquez, a scientific affiliate professor and director of the Civil Justice Clinic on the College of Houston, mentioned. “There are some exceptions which might be very lower and dry and about what ought to be and shouldn’t be launched, however there’s some which might be slightly bit extra nuanced, and that is why the legal professional basic has to present an opinion on some issues.”
HISD, prefer it does with lots of ABC13’s requests, requested the legal professional basic’s workplace if it may withhold the video as a result of there was delicate info in it, presumably a license quantity.
HISD, which is the biggest faculty district in Texas with a $2.1 billion finances, additionally argued they did not have the power to take away or redact it from the video, regardless of placing out a extremely produced information broadcast on its YouTube web page that requires enhancing.
The AG’s workplace despatched HISD a letter final 12 months permitting them to withhold the video just because they mentioned they may not edit it.
“You declare the submitted video recordings have to be withheld from the requestor of their entireties pursuant to part 522.130 of the Authorities Code since you lack the technological functionality to redact the motorcar file info from the recordings. Thus, we agree you could withhold the video recordings of their entirety,” an legal professional with the AG’s workplace instructed HISD.
13 Investigates requested HISD about this request and different requests the place info was not supplied.
An HISD spokesperson, who works for a public affairs agency, instructed Eyewitness Information in a press release, “HISD promptly responds to over 1,000 public info requests submitted by the media and on a regular basis residents every faculty 12 months. The District supplies public data if they’re obtainable. There are situations when individuals don’t correctly request or request data that don’t exist.”
Oftentimes, ABC13 asks for data that HISD says it doesn’t have or doesn’t perceive.
For instance, when requested what number of weapons HISD’s new weapon detection system had discovered at Lamar Excessive College. This can be a system the district touted to maintain college students secure.
HISD’s legal professional responded that they’ve “no responsive info.”
In one other request, ABC13 requested what number of principals and assistant principals have been investigated, terminated, reassigned, and resigned from HISD during the last two faculty years.
HISD’s legal professional requested to outline what “investigated, terminated, reassigned, and resigned” meant, although these are phrases the district has used to oldsters and media in statements.
We additionally needed to know the way a lot HISD is paying the members of the communications division, which is the workforce that communicates with the media and the general public, so that is what we requested for.
HISD’s legal professional requested us what we imply by “the district communications division.”
A fast web seek for the phrases “HISD communications” reveals the communications division homepage, with a listing of the staff and their titles.
Equally, after we ask HISD questions, we have began getting responses from an out of doors public affairs workforce that’s primarily based in Los Angeles, slightly than the district’s personal, full-time communications workforce that’s on the HISD payroll.
We needed to know the way a lot they’re paying this public relations agency, so we filed a request mentioning the agency by identify and requested for all of their invoices. HISD mentioned they did not have any info.
We requested HISD about particular requests the place info was not launched, together with the video, the district mentioned it did not have the power to edit, they instructed us, “In these circumstances, requesters are both requested to make clear their requests or knowledgeable that no data are conscious of their request. HISD has not obtained any correctly filed public info requests from ABC13 which have gone unfilled.”
That assertion got here from a member of the skin public affairs workforce HISD works with – the one whose invoices we requested for however had been instructed the district does not have any.
Marquez mentioned the Texas Public Info Act is finally there to carry the federal government accountable and ought to be “liberally construed,” that means info is taken into account public except it falls underneath sure exceptions.
“We want that sort of transparency as a result of we are the ones who vote for individuals in, and while you’re spending cash, it’s essential to be sure you have correct oversight of that cash and it is being spent in the best way it is alleged to,” he mentioned. “If the whole lot was carried out usually, then there’s actually not an issue sharing the general public info.”
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