The proposed ordinance has another dark side to it.
“Any person in the private possession of a Local Government Record of the City of El Paso, Texas, where that possession is not authorized by law, is hereby ordered and shall immediately return and/or surrender any said record to Records Retention personnel of the City of El Paso, Texas, pursuant to Texas Local Government Code Section202.005(a). Any person who seeks and follows documented instructions from retention personnel of the City, are deemed to have satisfied any and all duties created by this ordinance and State law.”
City staff and city council have something up their collective sleeves here and I have not figured it out.
The ordinance complains that the state laws are ambiguous. Then they write this provision that is almost impossible to understand.
Does a copy of a record qualify?
If someone is given a document by a government employee must the document be returned?
Are there specific laws allowing you and I to possess various government documents? Is there a law that says you and I can hold a traffic ticket in our possession? Must we give it back to the police officer who issued it? Sorry officer, this is a public record and by law I cannot hold on to it in El Paso.
This looks to me to be an attempt to get into the private files of local businesses.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Cato
elpasospeak 
My guess is that they know damaging information is in the hands of individuals or employees who can blow the whistle and expose a lot of the past backroom dealings between city management/council and special interests. They’re trying with all these moves to get the horses back in the corral.
Can we now please see document retention policy and State law referenced in this ordinance language?
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many of the employees in the county records office and clerks probably have a slew of records that prove shenanigans….
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