City exploring open records limitations despite opposition

The City of El Paso will continue to explore the possibility of pushing legislation aimed at redacting phone numbers from public records despite opposition from freedom of information advocates and State Representative Joe Moody.

City Council did not take action on the issue on Tuesday but the City’s attorney handling the legislative agenda, Brie Franco, said she would speak to members of the delegation about the possibility of the legislation.

The issue stems from City Rep. Emma Acosta’s proposal earlier this month to redact phone numbers of members of the public from documents the city releases through open records requests. “We need to protect the public. I’m not asking that we withhold information. The conversations will still be there. We’ll just cross out the phone numbers,” Acosta said on Tuesday.

KVIA News Director Brenda DeAnda-Swann addressed council during the public comment section of the item, saying there seemed to be a lot of misinformation about the Texas Public Information Law.

“There has to be a case where you say this person’s identity was subjected to identity theft because their phone number was released due to an open records request and I searched and I just haven’t found any,” said DeAnda-Swann who is also a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

Other council members expressed concern, including Lily Limon and Claudia Ordaz who said they could not support the measure after State Rep. Joe Moody had voiced opposition to it.

In a statement Monday, Moody wrote “Laws that weaken government transparency weaken government itself by undermining public trust, so I’ll never support limiting open records unless there’s a true concern for our community that needs to be addressed.”

“He’s just one member of the delegation and I haven’t personally spoken to him,” Acosta said Tuesday. Moody’s letter showed he had emailed it to all the city representatives.

The City Attorney also included the redaction of date of births from public documents on Tuesday’s agenda.

The redaction of phone numbers and dates of birth was not what was initially posted by Acosta two weeks on the council agenda. The original item mentioned the limiting of public records to people convicted of crimes of moral turpitude, which includes computer hacking.

However, once the discussion began, Acosta strayed from the original language of the item and focused on redacting phone numbers. The Council deleted the item two weeks ago and on Tuesday the issue resurfaced with updated language revolving around redacting phone numbers and dates of birth of members of the public in released documents.

Acosta’s item was posted days after local blogger Jaime Abeytia had submitted an open records request asking for all emails and text messages between Acosta, City Rep. Michiel Noe and their respective legislative aids regarding any and all city business, including matters related to the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

He accused Acosta of using the item to intimidate him and shame him for his open records request. Abeytia in 2014 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of breach of computer security related to a domestic case.

Acosta denied Abeytia’s allegation, saying she had recently become aware of the risk of cell phones being hacked with simply the phone number and that had created the concern.

On Tuesday, Abeytia revealed he had only received 15 text messages or emails from the city related to his open records request. He said it was “ridiculous” that four people communicated only four times in about a year over city matters and slammed Acosta and Noe for their lack of transparency. “These are the people who are always boasting about transparency but it’s clear the information I requested was not disclosed,” he said.

Noe said he went through his cell phone and forwarded all his responsive text messages to the city attorney’s office. He provided ABC-7 an email from Jackie Leyva, a legal secretary within the City Attorney’s office that said Abeytia’s request had been clarified to include only MPO related text messages.

However, Abeytia provided ABC-7 his emails to Leyva in which he does not narrow his request to only MPO related conversations but maintains he is looking for communication of all city business. “Not only did I clearly state what I was requesting (text messages), I also was clear about who the parties involved are, regarding specific issue, and regarding a specific time period. Again my request was very clear and I fully expect the City of El Paso to meet its legal obligations,” Abeytia’s email states.

“If the request is specified again to include all city business, I’ll get all my text messages about city business,” Noe said.

Acosta said Abeytia’s request yielded so few responsive documents because she rarely texts. “I don’t text. If I need to get a hold of Dora, I call her. If I need to tell her something, I call her,” she said in an interview. Dora Oaxaca is Acosta’s legislative aide who also does work for Noe’s office.

Abeytia said he would be reviewing his options. “These city representatives are not transparent,” he said.