Austin American-Statesman Sues City Over Information Request

AUSTIN, TX — The Austin American-Statesman has sued the city of Austin following the latter's refusal to provide documents related to its search for a city manager, the newspaper reported Thursday.

The Statesman filed the lawsuit on Tuesday after the city refused to honor its request under the Texas Public Information Act. The paper had sought to confirm names of four finalists for the Austin city manager job left vacant after Marc Ott departed for a job in Washington, D.C.

“The residents of Austin will be paying the salary for a new city manager, and at the very least should know the finalists being considered by the city for such a critical role,” Statesman executive editor Debbie Hiott said in a prepared statement. “Whether the City Council agrees or not, the legislative intent of the Texas Public Information Act has always been clear, that this is the type of information the public is entitled to know. If the city doesn’t want to inform the public, the newspaper will.”

The city last week denied the newspaper's request for information, citing a Texas Supreme Court ruling largely applied to businesses competing for government contracts. While the law protects the identifies of candidates for school superintendent jobs or chief executives at universities, such provisions don't exist for government officials, the paper noted.

“Because the Legislature has not made the names of applicants for city manager confidential — as it has with other public job positions — the ‘competitive bidding’ exception to the (Texas Public Information) Act should not be interpreted to apply to such information as a matter of law,” the Statesman’s lawsuit reads in part. “The decision whether to make that information confidential must be left to the Legislature, not the city.”

The city manager's post — the municipality's top executive position —has been vacant for more than a year since Ott's departure. Elaine Hart has since served as interim city manager at the helm of the 14,000-employee department with a $3.9 billion budget. Hart is earning a salary of $306,233 in the interim slot.

For further insight, the Statesman turned to Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. She categorized the city's rationale in denying the information request as a "contortion" of the state supreme court case, Boeing v. Paxton, which safeguards the bidding process.

“When you are hiring (for) an important position like city manager, city attorney or police chief, that rises to the level of position that transparency is needed,” Shannon told the Statesman. “And the public needs to be in a loop in the finalists and the hiring process.”

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

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