Update – Messin’ with Texas
Thanks to the people who generously donated $530 in response to Blegging for Records I was able to pay the Office of the Governor of Texas $611.00 for two sets of emails and email headers. $568 dollars went to pay for copies of the complete emails sent or received by the office of the Governor for the four days of November 2, 2007 through November 5, 2007. These would be the records responsive to my two PIA requests dated November 6, 2007. $40 dollars went to pay for the email headers and complete emails sent or received by the office of the Governor for the three days of November 20, 2007 through November 22, 2007. These would be the records responsive to my four PIA requests dated November 23, 2007.
The reason for the difference in costs is that the Governor’s office failed to respond to the November 23, 2007 within ten business days as required by law. Under the Governor’s own interpretation of the Texas Public Information Act, this failure to respond means the Governor’s office has forfeited the option of presenting a itemization of charges which exceeds $40. I believe this is a misreading of the Texas PIA, but for this request I will stipulate the Governor’s construction of the statute is correct. It saves me $528 after all.
To date: Messin’ with Texas has consisted of 9 emails to publicrecords@governor.state.tx.us which contained 32 PIA requests among them. The emails sent on November 6, 2007, November 9, 2007, November 13, 2007, November 16, 2007, November 20, 2007, November 23, 2007, November 27, 2007, November 30, 2007, and December 4, 2007 can be found by linking through.
On December 7, 2007, attorney Joe Larsen sent a tenth public information act request on my behalf. The Office of the Governor claims it has a written policy which is used to review emails prior to their destruction by the electronic shredders. This tenth PIA request asked for a copy of this written policy. To date there has been no response at all to this tenth PIA request; not even a late one response as was the case for the November 23, 2007 requests.
At this point the ball is in the Governor’s court. By their own interpretation of the PIA statutes the Governor’s Office has ten days to produce the records, take the matter up with the Office of the AG, or take the matter to court.
Slowly developing.
The reason for the difference in costs is that the Governor’s office failed to respond to the November 23, 2007 within ten business days as required by law. Under the Governor’s own interpretation of the Texas Public Information Act, this failure to respond means the Governor’s office has forfeited the option of presenting a itemization of charges which exceeds $40. I believe this is a misreading of the Texas PIA, but for this request I will stipulate the Governor’s construction of the statute is correct. It saves me $528 after all.
To date: Messin’ with Texas has consisted of 9 emails to publicrecords@governor.state.tx.us which contained 32 PIA requests among them. The emails sent on November 6, 2007, November 9, 2007, November 13, 2007, November 16, 2007, November 20, 2007, November 23, 2007, November 27, 2007, November 30, 2007, and December 4, 2007 can be found by linking through.
On December 7, 2007, attorney Joe Larsen sent a tenth public information act request on my behalf. The Office of the Governor claims it has a written policy which is used to review emails prior to their destruction by the electronic shredders. This tenth PIA request asked for a copy of this written policy. To date there has been no response at all to this tenth PIA request; not even a late one response as was the case for the November 23, 2007 requests.
At this point the ball is in the Governor’s court. By their own interpretation of the PIA statutes the Governor’s Office has ten days to produce the records, take the matter up with the Office of the AG, or take the matter to court.
Slowly developing.
posted by John Washburn | 9:43 PM
8 Comments:
It's a shame that that money wasn't spent to help heat someone's house or help provide some needed food or even a Christmas present or two for some kid.
You presumptive son of a bitch.
My charitable life is none of your business.
If you are distressed about the imprisoned and the poor then look to your left, look to your right and care of it, but when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret
Here are some suggestions:
Angel Tree
New Beginnings,
Boy Scouts, a
local church or something else.
So you really are a jerk! Now it seems that you are the presumptive @#$. I guess we will need compare charity in heaven ... or hell??? And I was referring to the jokers that sent you money:-)Must have a guity conscience aey.I'm just sick of all WASTED money...EVERYWHERE! And who said anything about the "imprisoned"??? If we would all just get off our egotistical BS soap boxes real change could and would happen. This effort is nothing but pure BS! Got you a little national web light... great. I hope everyone that sent you money will see the light sooner or latter.
Johnny, so your true colors come shinny through. There is a saying, I have tasted my own medicine, and it is bitter. if the shoe fits!
Watchdog Collective,
Short stay, not much here, small tators, boring, little or no substance, many non-responses, typical far end mentality but with a lack of focus. Say it's time to move on.
Carry on
Hey Watchdog,
You deserve and should expect an apology. That was totally uncalled for on John's part. But if you read some of his stuff you can get a feel for the type of person he is. To bad cause most of his issues are pretty relivant. And what about the low amount of responses to posts. If it wasn't for the negative responses he would have no responses at all :-)
And what's up with this watchdog collective stuff????
I apologize.
I was out of line to use such language.
As for what kind of person I am, given how narrow a facet of my life is represented by this blog, I doubt even a regular reader "knows" me.
Again, Watchdog, I apologize.
I blogged angry and assumed a comment on my blog about money me and donors spent on a project I start might was directed at me and my charitable giving instead of the charitable giving of the donors.
Even so, that is no excuse for such a breach of decorum. I enjoy the comment section because of the often brilliant critique of the material here. That hurly burly of the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
I sullied and shamed that tradition with my thin-skinned flame.
John,
You have really shaken things up in Austin! What is going on at Texas office of Homeland Security? They have not stopped ANY illegals that I am aware of. What about Perry's Texas Border Coallition? They are trying to stop construction of "The Fence" even though it has already been mandated by the Feds! Lots of Good Ol' Boy corruption going on in Austin. Move down here and find out! We need you!
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