El Paso City Council divided, bicker over open records requests

The City Council on Tuesday voted to disclose during public city council meetings any open records requests submitted by city representatives and city board members.

The conversation centered around transparency but again conveyed how divided and tense the current council is.

The issue was brought forward by City Rep. Emma Acosta who said she was striving for more open government. “This is not intended to point fingers at anyone or indicate that anyone is doing anything improperly. I think it’s only for transparency and for purposes of letting the public know what our concerns are. The public has a right to know what we’re concerned about and why that information is not forthcoming to us.”

Open records requests are meant for members of the public to obtain information concerning the affairs of the government and the official acts of public officials and employees, according to the Texas Government Code.

Media outlets and members of the public often request emails or text messages between elected officials or more detailed information that’s not readily accessible on the city’s website. It’s uncommon for city representatives, who already have access to city information to submit open records requests yet that’s what’s happening within the City of El Paso.

Assistant City Attorney Laura Gordon on Tuesday said City Rep. Lily Limon had submitted six open records requests while City Rep. Michiel Noe had submitted three since 2013. “If we lived in the ideal world and if we as council members had a question, and we received the response, then I can assure you that several of these would not have been open records requests,” Limon said.

ABC-7 requested from the City’s legal staff details on what exactly Limon and Noe inquired about with their open records requests. Limon said one of her requests asked for the office budget of each city representative because she’s concerned some city representatives are over spending their allocated budget.

Acosta said Limon had asked for the last three years worth of budget information for all the offices of the city representatives. Though, for Acosta’s office, Limon asked for the last ten years of financial information, said Acosta.

The City’s Budget Manager and Acosta have provided documents to ABC-7 showing Acosta has not exceeded her office budget. Acosta has used discretionary funds rolled over from previous years. Every fiscal year, city representatives are allocated $5,000 of discretionary funds and if they’re unused, the funds are transferred to the next year.

That explanation has not been sufficient for Limon who believes some city representatives are ‘dipping’ into the general fund to make up office budget shortfalls.

During the discussion, City Rep. Claudia Ordaz said she did not understand why budget information should be requested through an open records request.

“Maybe there should be some sort of code of conduct because I don’t believe a city council representative should be making an open records request on any sort of budgetary matter when that information should be readily available to us (city reps.) anyway since we do oversee the budget.”

Acosta and City Manager Tommy Gonzalez agreed. “It doesn’t have to be (an open records request). But if city rep. submits it as an open records request, then we can’t stop them,” said Gonzalez.

Limon countered by saying she has asked for information from city officials and city representatives in the past and has been ignored, forcing her to file open records requests. She said another city representative, whom she would not identify to ABC-7, had previously said there was an email between them and former City Manager Joyce Wilson referencing Limon. “I asked for that twice in two different formats and there was no responsive documents. So that says one thing either they weren’t produced or someone wasn’t telling the truth,” Limon said.

In an interview, she said Acosta’s proposal appeared to be punitive and meant as a response to Limon’s open records requests.

“I think the public has a right to know what concerns we have and perhaps if it’s an issue that needs further discussion than it should be done,” Acosta said in an interview. Her motion proposed any open records request by city elected officials and board members be placed on the next available city council meeting agenda, that any amount paid by the elected official be disclosed as well as the staff time utilized for the request.

“The intent for disclosure is to make sure the public understands that we don’t get any freebies if we do any open records requests. That we would pay just as the regular public would pay if they requested the information.” said Acosta.

The discussion then spiraled into the dysfunction of city council.

“Instead of focusing on how we can advance this community and focusing on leading our individual districts, some members of council are more focused on the got you game and that’s just very sad,” said City Rep. Cortney Niland.

“Let’s respect each other. And everyone’s talking about it and in my opinion talk is cheap. Let’s start doing it,” added Mayor Oscar Leeser.

The current city council has been heavily criticized by print media and community leaders for refusing to work together, being dysfuntional and petty. Community leaders have said filing open records requests against their own colleagues shows the extent of the council dysfunction.

“The climate of council has become extremely petty, extremely bitter and we have lost focus and sight on the big picture. This is probably the lowest point in my service that I’ve ever been in.” said Niland.

Acosta’s motion passed with four affirmative votes from her, City Representatives Larry Romero, Michiel Noe and Cortney Niland.

Limon voted against it.

Peter Svarzbein and Claudia Ordaz abstained from the vote. Svarzbein said the city had “more important things to focus on.”

“I chose not to vote because I felt it was a vote that distracted from the larger issues at hand. I abstained from the vote because I was elected to work on policy and focus on projects for District 1, El Paso and the broader region as a whole. Agenda items like we had today do not help push El Paso forward,” wrote Svarzbein in an email.

When asked why she abstained, Ordaz in a text message wrote: “I don’t believe members of council should make frivolous requests against their colleagues, but no one could explain why this budgetary information was not provided to a member of council.”