Public information

Open records advocates busy playing defense

Attacks on open records increasing; prompt call for statewide review.

The Texas legislative session is churning into its final three weeks and advocacy groups are battling against measures that could close state records to public eyes and private eyes.

Organizations representing news media and private investigators are armed with lists of scores of bills that each group says would unfairly and unnecessarily restrict disclosure of some governmental records.

Arlington private investigator Randy Kildow, president of the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators, said he's been playing defense throughout the session as his group monitors more than 100 bills relating to disclosure of government information. "Every one of them hurts," he said.

Advocates for open government say that public information is under increasing attack, particularly as records become more accessible via the Internet and people worry about privacy. Some open records advocates are calling for a study of the Texas Public Information Act, with an eye toward overhauling a law that was passed in 1973, long before personal computers and the Internet became commonplace in homes and businesses.

"We deal in information ... and the state has that information," Kildow said. "We have to have full access to it, not a redacted copy, not a press release copy, but full access so we can properly represent our clients and see that they get an opportunity for full justice."

Private investigators frequently need information to help clients involved in lawsuits, he said. For example, a person injured in a building collapse might need to know the name of the building inspector. But pending legislation would make it difficult to track down an inspector who left the government payroll.

"If the city won't fully identify that inspector, how would I ever get him before a court of law?" Kildow asked.

At the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, an open government and First Amendment advocacy group, Executive Director Keith Elkins said he sees the legislative session as a good news/bad news prospect to this point. The good news, he said, is the Free Flow of Information Act has passed to Gov. Rick Perry for his approval. The law would grant journalists protection from disclosing the identity of confidential sources.

It is intended to guarantee that sources, including government workers who act as whistleblowers, do not have to fear that prosecutors could force reporters to identify them. News organizations and district attorneys, who battled over the issue for years, reached a compromise that prosecutors said would not hurt their ability to gather evidence.

The bad news, Elkins said, "is there seems to be an effort to close off public information that had previously been provided under the Texas Public Information Act," including dates of birth for public employees. Birth dates, he said, are crucial in differentiating among people with similar names. An often-cited example: There are dozens of state employees named Juan Garcia; without their birth dates, how do you tell them apart?

Kildow said the measures as overreaction to identify theft concerns, and said there is a "growing trend" toward reducing open records.

"At every turn, at every legislative session we are seeing more and more bills that are exemptions to open records," he said.

Many of the proposed changes also are a reaction to the new reality of open records. What you used to have to head to a courthouse or state office building to see now can be accessed by computer from home.And the information is available to all, including those who seek it for improper or illegal use.

That new reality has spurred a proposal for a major study of the state of public records in Texas. Elkins said he likes the idea "because the Public Information Act maybe has outgrown itself in some ways because it was set up for paper documents and now we're in the electronic age."

The interim study idea is included in a bill by Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock. Elkins' group opposes the bill, however, because it also would bar release of birthdates of government workers.

Other public information bills include efforts to restrict access to portions of criminal records, property appraisal records and information about government employees. Bill sponsors say access to some government records can make folks targets for identity theft and other crimes. But lawmakers also acknowledge the popularity of easily accessible public records.

"I know a lot of people enjoy looking these things up," House Ways and Means Chairman Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, said at a hearing on a bill allowing Texans to have their names removed from online property appraisal records.

Oliveira said he and others "were surprised many years ago to find out our names and home addresses and our properties are on the Internet for anyone to see."

"There's a balance between protecting people's rights and ensuring transparency and accountability," he said.

A bill by Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, concerning online appraisal records offers a look at the competing interests. Davis filed the bill after a constituent's home was broken into by someone the constituent believed got the address from online property appraisal records.

"Not everybody wants all their personal business out there," Davis said.

The Texas Press Association and Texas Daily Newspaper Association, longtime defenders of open records, signed up against the bill at the hearing. Appraisal district officials and the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas signed up to support it.

Davis' bill won committee approval, but only after a significant change resulting from concerns from an industry — real estate — that did not weigh in at the hearing. Under an amendment by Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, the bill now would make elected officials the only Texans who could have their names stricken from online property appraisal records.

Hilderbran told colleagues that allowing all Texans to have their names removed would "inconvenience folks in the real estate business" — who use appraisal records to contact property owners —without accomplishing anything "because these addresses are going to be on the Internet somewhere else."

Davis said she now takes a good-enough approach on the amended version of her bill, which is awaiting House floor action.

"Some folks were concerned that it would impact their ability to do their real-estate deals. That's all I can get done," she said of the amended bill.

Why protect elected officials? "I know of instances of people going to officials' houses and knocking on their doors," she said. "And that's a problem."

kherman@statesman.com