City Council Seeks Vexatious Requestor Policy

The City of San Angelo has a history of mobilizing resources for areas important to citizens, streets, water and trash.  City staff cited increased demand for public information as a reason to restrict access to individual citizens and organizations it considers non-newsworthy.  City Council will decide if information flows are as important as water or sewage.

When conflict is not resolved at an early stage or lower level it escalates, sometimes reaching City Council.  That happened recently on two fronts, Economic Development and Animal Services.  It's about to occur with citizen access to Public Information. 

Former Economic Development Director Guy Andrews clearly stated his reasons for leaving city employment at the September Development Corporation meeting.  They included his assessment that Assistant City Manager Michael Dane was a bully and City Manager Daniel Valenzuela avoided important issues.  In the same meeting First Vice President John Bariou shared concerns about the relationship between the city and the Development Corporation.

Dane lived up to Andrews' assessment in the meeting with a thinly veiled presentation on developmemt corporation over staffing and threat of job elimination.  It did not appear to impress Chamber of Commerce executives in attendance.  

City Council planned to address First Vice President John Bariou in Executive Session, however he emphatically requested the item be moved to Open Session to ensure open government functioning.  Council backed down by removing the item from the agenda.

The December 13th background packet states "San Angelo City Council wishes to establish a policy..."  I have not heard Council discuss this topic during its strategic planning sessions or at City Council.  In what deliberative public forum did Council express this wish?  (I am waiting to hear back on this question via a public information request.)

I see the restriction of public information access as more indirect payback to citizens who've shined the light on these controversies.

I submitted public information requests to obtain information on Animal Shelter operations, information not available on the city's website. 

I submitted a public information request on Guy Andrews resignation and clarified to city staff I wanted documents that revealed the reasons for his resignation.  The city provided e-mails regarding his retirement date and accessing retirement benefits.

After looking at the City's organizational chart I noted the three areas have one thing in common.  Public Information, Economic Development and Animal Services all report to Assistant City Manager Michael Dane.

The public information change reads Michael Dane revenge in its backdating the beginning date to the start of the fiscal year.  Any normal change for citizens would have a forward application date, not retroactive.  

The city is doing this very thing in Animal Services.  This blog reported a minuscule number of citations written since the spay/neuter ordinance passed.  Shortly thereafter, staff informed the public it would go back two months for owners who had not spay/neutered their pet.  That quietly changed to two years.

So demand is up for public information in our local democratic government. Who will Council chose to serve?

Update 12-14-22:  Payback delivered.  City Council voted 5-2 to restrict citizen access to Public Information Requests by labeling people as vexatious should they frequently seek information..  

The FY 2023 PIR areas I submitted that concerned Council and City Manager Daniel Valenzuela were mostly Animal Services and included:

1. The City's response to PETA letter and letter from area rescues about shutting off dog intake. (I waited two weeks for the city to issue a public response as implied by a Concho Valley Homepage story)
   
2. How much a citizen cited for failure to spay/neuter their pet is expected to pay in total fees and municipal court costs. (not shared in ASAC meeting)
   
3. Changes in shelter staff pay as a result of the management review of shelter operations  (numbers not shared in City Council)
4. Blue Book and Revenue and Expenditure accounting documents for the just ended FY 21-22 (documents were once available on city's website, access removed in 2018)
5. The number of shelter animals surrendered by owner for FY 21-22.  (not included in the ASAC agenda packet for 10-20-22)
6. Why the city changed the time period for giving citations for failure to spay/neuter per city ordinance from August 16, 2022 as indicated in a city press release to a "two year period" as stated by Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden in the 10-20-22 ASAC meeting.  No responsive documents exist
7. The number of dog breeding permits issued by the city for each calendar year from 2016 to the present.
8. Documents showing the two year history of spay/neuter as referenced in another city document. 
9. Animal Shelter's compliance with the city's mandatory spay/neuter ordinance for the just ended fiscal year.  
10. Documents in regard to the city's change in spay/neuter enforcement as announced on 10-6-22 

Update 12-31-22:   Dane plays the long game and achieved win after win in making information less available to the public.

Update 1-12-23:  City staff informed Council that it needed to restrict citizen access to public information so it would not have to hire part time staff to assist with public information requests.  The city posted a part time job in the City Clerk's office with that very duty.