Open Records Request - 9/28/04
Request to Review Citations Issued for Pole
Signs
Note: This request
was research into possible illegal actions on the part of Code Enforcement
personnel. City employees have issued illegal citations in an effort to
force the removal of signs that are not "beautiful" by council standards -
without law to support such issuance.
-------- Original Message --------
Dear Ms. Hutson:
This is a request under the Texas Open Records Act, chapter 552 of the
Government Code (formerly V.T.C.S. article 6252) as well as Article I, Sec. 8 of
the Texas Constitution, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,
the common law of the State of Texas and any statue providing for public access
to government information.
I request that I be sent copies of the following documents or, if there are a
large number, be permitted to inspect the following documents and receive copies
of the ones I would like:
All citations, notices and documents given, delivered, mailed or
communicated in any written manner to businesses located in the City of North
Richland
Hills, Texas, by the Code Enforcement Staff of North Richland Hills, Texas,
and relating specifically to any term, condition or requirement of the existing
sign ordinance(s) of North Richland Hills, Texas. This request is
applicable only to such documents for the period of January 1, 2002 to the
present time.
All applications for sign permits during this same period.
If you have any questions about the nature or scope of this request, please call
me at the phone number listed below. If you determine that all or some portion
of the information requested is excepted from required disclosure, I request
that you provide me with the portions of the requested information that are
public and reasonably segrable from that which you believe is excepted. If any
records are in active use or in storage, please certify this fact in writing and
set a date and hour within a reasonable time when the records will be available,
as required by section 552.221 of the Act. If you determine that all or some
portion of the information requested is excepted from required public disclosure
under a particular exception, I request that you advise me as to which
exceptions you believe apply. If you rely on previous determination, please
advise me of the applicable court decision or Attorney General's opinion. If
there is no such determination, please advise me of the request for such an
opinion, as required under section 552.301 of the Act, and a dated copy of your
letter to the Attorney General. I call your attention to section 522.353 of the
Act, which provides penalties for a failure to release public records. I am
prepared to pay reasonable costs for copying, within the guidelines set by
sections 552.261, 552.262, 552.263, 552.267, 552.268, 552.269.
I appreciate your attention to this and expect to hear from your office within
ten days.
Sincerely,
Ron C. West
Compliance: Provision was made by the City Secretary to
review citations for most of the period requested. Citation books are
routinely destroyed so the only way to actually see all such citations would be
to review every file individually. Copies were made of select citations.
A jury trial case is pending in municipal court that is based in part on this
research.