According to city council testimony on May 20, 2014, the city has spent is about $95 thousand dollars litigating the case. The city continues to argue that it has done all it can within its authority to gather the records and release them to the public. The city further argues that it does not have the authority to compel Steve Ortega to release the records and therefore it has done all it can.
According to the city’s argument, the only person that can force the release of the records is Jaime Esparza, the district attorney. The problem, though, is that the city needs to file a complaint with Jaime Esparza’s office in order for the district attorney to investigate. The city has not filed a complaint with Esparza’s office and therefore it effectively condones Steve Ortega’s refusal to release the records he holds.
Today’s court case is expected to address whether the city has, in fact done all it can to force Steve Ortega to comply with the open records laws.
For a complete recap of the ongoing saga of the emails being kept from public scrutiny, use this link.
I assume STA knows about below new case….should help with right to Discovery.
“We made it to the Texas Supreme Court! Merits brief due in June. In a nutshell the 1st Texas Court of Appeals reinterpreted the Texas Public Information Act (previously the Texas Open Records Act) which would greatly limit, burden and delay the People’s right to file a lawsuit to enforce the open records requirements of the TPIA which is already weakened by many exceptions and the procedures in place.
This case started when Houston lawyer Paul Kubosh and I requested open records on Houston’s Red Light Camera system and were refused. We filed suit and got the records but then the court argued the $100k+ spent on legal fees was not recoverable because under the TPIA we were limited in our rights to file a lawsuit. See attached brief.