Nov
24
Written by:
William Lutz
11/24/2010 3:49 PM
The Austin American-Statesman published an interesting article today on the attempt by some city officials to have the Texas Open Meetings Act declared unconstitutional. The officials argue it violates their First Amendment rights to be prevented from emailing a quorum of, say, a city council and having a virtual discussion about agenda items (or the future agenda of the city council). The case is being heard in the District Court by federal judge and former legislator Rob Junell.
We wish to draw our readers' attention to one section in the story:
With help from the Texas Municipal League, [attorney Dick] DeGuerin recruited current city officials to join a new lawsuit, including Pflugerville City Council Member Victor Gonzales, who was on the witness list but did not testify Tuesday.
First the big-government city lobbyists work to make sure it's next to impossible for voters to rollback excessive property tax increases. Now they're trying to get a federal judge to throw out the Texas Open Meetings Act so they can do public business in secret.