This version corrects a version where we incorrectly posited that a policy change of this nature might not be legal.
Yet another example of how utterly wrong-headed the Lewisville ISD administration is with regards to public information: This coming Monday (December 14th) the Board of Trustees will consider adding the following to their policy on public information:
CHARGING FOR PERSONNEL TIME After personnel of the District collectively have spent 36 hours of time producing public information for a requestor during the District’s fiscal year, the District shall charge the requestor for any additional personnel time spent producing information for the requestor, in accordance with law. GBAA(LOCAL)
Texas' Public Information Act specifically lays out the circumstances under which a governmental body may charge for information, generally disallowing ANY charge for requests that result in less than 50 pages of documents. Here's what state law says:
SUBCHAPTER F. CHARGES FOR PROVIDING COPIES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION
Sec. 552.261. CHARGE FOR PROVIDING COPIES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION. (a) The charge for providing a copy of public information shall be an amount that reasonably includes all costs related to reproducing the public information, including costs of materials, labor, and overhead. If a request is for 50 or fewer pages of paper records, the charge for providing the copy of the public information may not include costs of materials, labor, or overhead, but shall be limited to the charge for each page of the paper record that is photocopied, unless the pages to be photocopied are located in:
(1) two or more separate buildings that are not physically connected with each other; or
(2) a remote storage facility.
(b) If the charge for providing a copy of public information includes costs of labor, the requestor may require the governmental body's officer for public information or the officer's agent to provide the requestor with a written statement as to the amount of time that was required to produce and provide the copy. The statement must be signed by the officer for public information or the officer's agent and the officer's or the agent's name must be typed or legibly printed below the signature. A charge may not be imposed for providing the written statement to the requestor.
(c) For purposes of Subsection (a), a connection of two buildings by a covered or open sidewalk, an elevated or underground passageway, or a similar facility is insufficient to cause the buildings to be considered separate buildings.
(d) Charges for providing a copy of public information are considered to accrue at the time the governmental body advises the requestor that the copy is available on payment of the applicable charges.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993. Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 1035, Sec. 16, eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1231, Sec. 4, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1319, Sec. 14, eff. Sept. 1, 1999; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 864, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
But section 552.275 more recently added an exception, that we did not find until today:
§ 552.275. Requests That Require Large Amounts of Employee or Personnel Time
(a) A governmental body may establish a reasonable limit on the amount of time that personnel of the governmental body are required to spend producing public information for inspection or duplication by a requestor, or providing copies of public information to a requestor, without recovering its costs attributable to that personnel time.
(b) A time limit established under Subsection (a) may not be less than 36 hours for a requestor during the 12-month period that corresponds to the fiscal year of the governmental body.
...
(j) This section does not apply if the requestor is a representative of:
(1) a radio or television station that holds a license issued by the Federal Communications Commission; or
(2) a newspaper that is qualified under Section 2051.044 to publish legal notices or is a free newspaper of general circulation and that is published at least once a week and available and of interest to the general public in connection with the dissemination of news.
(k) This section does not apply if the requestor is an elected official of the United States, this state, or a political subdivision of this state.
(l) This section does not apply if the requestor is a representative of a publicly funded legal services organization that is exempt from federal income taxation under Section 501(a), Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, by being listed as an exempt entity under Section 501(c)(3) of that code.
So, we stand corrected in the earlier assertion that this change would not be legal.
The Texas Attorney General's Office is authorized by statute to set the standard charges for staff time in preparing responses to Open Records Requests. The current schedule is here. The law allows $15 per hour for staff time plus 20% for overhead, plus $1 per hour for computer use, which would amount to $19 per hour plus copying charges for a member of the public to get access to a document that should be available on the district's website in the first place. Texas law also allows governmental bodies to waive the fees when information is primarily for public benefit (for instance when a media outfit is going to re-publish information). LISD does not currently waive any charges.
The school district seriously needs to drop this attempt at keeping the public out of their business and just open up the process. It's bad enough that the district fails to properly comply with requests for information today. It's bad enough that the district REQUIRES citizens to go through that formal process rather than just being open and answering questions in the first place.
I think that LISD Taxpayers ought to be asking themselves why the district seems to want to keep information to itself. What are they hiding? Why is it that even after being notified of the problem, LISD STILL has an out-dated Open Records Request form on their website which is addressed to the wrong person with an incorrect fax number? Why does their online Open Records Request Form not fully account for all of the options available to a requestor - specifically requests to be emailed and/or receive the request on electronic media.
As long as they keep ducking questions, we'll keep asking more. I have a feeling that I'll have to submit some additional requests to get to the bottom of why they're doing this.
For those of you who heard me on the radio last month, you may have heard the folks at 1360 AM, Rational Radio offer to make me their Lewisville Correspondent. Noting that there is an exception to the rule for representatives of radio stations, I may just take them up on that offer.
Re: LISD Board to Consider Charging More for Public Infor...
Great Job Steve! Wonder what else they are trying to hide? They need to drag their butts into the current age. How refreshing that progressive caring parents such as yourself are actively interested in their kid's school. Those elected officials need to be transparant and accountable especially based on the higher and higher taxes we keep voting for.
First, thanks for the kind words, but I often feel like I don't do enough with regards to my kids' education. I struggle with things like getting them to do their homework. I rely on professionals who teach in our public schools to equip my kids with basic academic skills. It's not that I'm totally uninvolved, but I could stand to do more. Even though it's not my thing, I really appreciate the people who spend their time volunteering in the schools and making a direct difference with students, and I don't think they get nearly enough attention.
Since I'm a civics-minded person, I guess my little part in this can be to help hold the administration and board accountable in some small way. But to be honest, I really hate how adversarial this has become. I just have never experienced such open contempt for public involvement as I've seen with LISD so far.
I keep hoping I can fix this relationship with LISD so that I can focus on writing about some of the good things that are going on over there.
Poster
Thread
Anonymous
Posted: 2009/12/14 9:22 Updated: 2009/12/14 12:41
Re: Well...
Ugh. I would argue that you are making these open records requests for the community at large, and not just yourself. They could deal with 30 citizens requesting the same thing, or one person requesting it for all. Or just make it all available online as you suggest.
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Re: LISD Board to Consider Charging More for Public Infor...
