City of El Paso wins appeal of open records lawsuit related to City business discussed in private emails

The Texas Court of Appeals, Third District in Austin, has ruled in favor of the City of El Paso in the City’s appeal of a previous ruling.

The court granted the City’s plea to the jurisdiction which dismissed the lawsuit against the Texas Attorney General in which attorney Stephanie Townshend Allala intervened.

According to City officials, the court ruled as follows:

1. Allala failed to produce any uncontroverted evidence the City was “refusing to supply public information.” The court made note of all the steps the City took to gather the information, the affidavits, etc. Further, the court acknowledged the fact the Texas Public Information Act, “reveals no methods by which the City could compel the disclosure of public-information emails located on private email accounts, other than what the City did here.”

2. The waiver of sovereign immunity which allows governmental entities to be sued under the Texas Public Information Act is directly tied to the “refusal” to produce public information. Thus the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction and should have granted the plea to the jurisdiction and dismissed the case.

3. Once the City established that it was not “refusing to supply public information” the burden shifted to Allala to show that there is a disputed material fact regarding the jurisdictional issue. She failed to meet the burden.

The court also ruled that Allala shall pay all costs relating to the appeal, both at the appellate level and the court below.

In mid-December, a judge denied a former city representative’s request to protect him from releasing documents.

Allala’s attorney, Bill Aleshire, fought with the City and former city representatives to get a hold of emails written in private email accounts that deal with public business – in particular, the Downtown ballpark.

Former City Rep. Steve Ortega, one of the city representatives whose emails were sought, told ABC-7 in December that he is “happy to comply with any court order.”