Texas Attorney General's Office Recognizes Our Complaint Against the City of Brownsville

City Commission meetings in Brownsville, Texas are televised live on public access Channel 12 with the video available a few days later on the City of Brownsville website.  The golden, wisdom-laden words of the mayor and city commissioners are aired for the community live and preserved in perpetuity on the video.  At the precise moment that a taxpayer steps up to the podium during so-called "Public Comment," the sound on the broadcast shifts to elevator music and an amateurish "Public Comment" graphic is panned by the camera until the much disrespected, but hardworking taxpayers finish their foolish drivel.  Citizens who sign up for and speak during public comment are not included in the City Commission broadcast or subsequent video despite public comment being on the agenda.  

Caricature by Nena

Such woeful contempt for the citizenry, defying the principles of participatory democracy, has served elitist Mayor Tony Martinez and his to-this-point inept city commissioners well as dumbass purchases like the exorbitantly overpriced La Casa del Nylon for $2,300,000 have slipped through without taxpayer review or input. If any governmental entity needs citizen scrutiny and guidance, it is the City of Brownsville City Commission under the unethical "leadership" of Tony Martinez.

Texas House Bill 283, which became law in June 2015 to be effective January 1, 2016, mandates that cities with a population exceeding 50,000 include a complete video of their city commission meetings online. Illegally, the City of Brownsville has not complied with this new law by continuing to exclude the Public Comment portion of the meeting from the video.  When we shared our concern that the City of Brownsville was not in compliance with Texas law in a call to the Attorney General's office, a staff lawyer agreed with us that the entire public city commission MUST be included in the video to comply with the new law. Our conversation with the AG staff resulted in a letter sent to Attorney General Ken Paxton, forwarded to City Manager Charlie Cabler, Mayor Tony Martinez and the city commissioners.  

Attorney General Ken Paxton
P.O. Box 12548
Austin, TX 78711-2548

Dear General Paxton,
We are respectfully requesting enforcement of HB 283 with respect to City Of Brownsville City Commission meetings. As we explained to an attorney in your Open Government Division, the City of Brownsville omits one critical portion of City Commission meeting in their online video, that is Public Comment. The attorney agreed that all of the meeting available to the general public should be included in the video as required by Texas law.

The agenda of the January 5, 2016 City Commission meeting shows Public Comment as Agenda Item #11, but the video released several days later on the City of Brownsville website omits this item.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Respectfully yours,

Jim Barton

Today we received a response from the Texas AG office assigning our complaint a case number. An opportunity to discuss the options mentioned in the letter was extended by Assistant Attorney General Neal Falgoust.