Where to start?
The premise of city council’s dandy new proposal is contained in one of their “WHERAS’s”. Put simply, city council thinks that the Texas legislature is a bunch of incompetent boobs. Council says so when they write:
WHEREAS, the City Council finds that “the transaction of official business” as used in the Texas Public Information Act and the Texas Local Government Records Act is not defined by Texas law; that the term is ambiguous, can cause confusion …”
A quick search on the term “official business” in the data base of Texas statutes finds the term used in laws 33 times. While these laws are often pretty specific about defining terms, the city may be right in that it is never specifically defined.
Why? Because even the village idiot knows what it means. Doing business with a government official that the government official is chartered to perform by law or by the nature of his office is pretty much the definition that a jury of your peers would apply.
The city proposes much the same language in it’s new ordinance. So what’s going on here?
The ordinance is not about defining “official business”. The legislature, you and I, and even city council already know what it is. The ordinance is about trying to make exempt from the law certain types of communication. That will be covered in another article.
After calling the legislators idiots, they accuse them of causing illegal action.
“…that the term is ambiguous, can cause confusion as to the duties of City Representatives and, alternative definitions may result in the illegal intrusion into individual privacy rights of all city employees …”
Are we lucky or what? But for the selfless efforts of our benevolent city council and lawyers we would be thrown into a pit of confusion caused by those numbskulls at the legislature.
This is about trying to cover up e-mails relating to the ball park and the downtown moves. Council hopes to rush an ordinance through so that when they are forced under existing laws to turn over the documents they will be able to point to their new rules which they will claim supersede the state rules.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Cato
elpasospeak 
Character has been defined as who we are when no one is watching us. And clearly, city management and council does not want us to know their true character.
This little public records maneuver and the spirit and intent behind it say everything about the lack of character and integrity among El Paso city council and management. This effort is totally about obfuscation of the truth and about positioning themselves to be able to operate unchecked in the shadows.
It is designed to enable city management and council members to communicate freely with and do business with special interests without any moral or ethical constraints, while also minimizing personal legal risk. I agree with Cato that timing of this move suggests that this is also an effort to cover up records and communications that already exist and are known to be damning.
My bet is that Wilson, Niland and others are now frequently using personal, non-official e-mail addresses to communicate with one another and with their benefactors on matters related to city business. I wonder how many now have two phones.
Our “leaders” think they are above reproach and that those who oppose them lack the financial resources to engage them legally on all of their various ill-conceived moves. After all, we the taxpayers foot the bill to arm city management and city council with full-time legal counsel along with outside counsel to defend their every move against us. They’ll make us pay one way or another and often in multiple ways.
The phrase “transaction of official business” is not unique to Texas law. You’ll find it used in many states, including Florida, which does a superb job of detailing which agency records are subject to that state’s public records act. You can read it here:
http://www.myflsunshine.com/sun.nsf/manual/5a60474cbfb8dbf4852566f30068571f
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They really must have something to hide considering this nonsense. We must obtain all correspodence re; the ballpark and the stadium.
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Let all of these egomaniacs try to tell the FBI that it can’t obtain certain information because the information is not a public record or related to a transaction of official business.
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