Central Texas Representative backs off of contentious FOI bill

Filed just under the deadline, Rep. Doug Miller’s “abusive requestor” bill seemed to be another FOI battle in the making. The bill would have allowed government agencies to sue an FOI requestor and halt the release of the information for up to 90 days.

HB 3641 defines abusive requestor as “a person who submits a request to a governmental body for inspection or copies of public information with the intent to harass, abuse, or waste public funds and/or time of public officials or employees.” Also, the court may find a requestor abusive if he or she has made as few as 5 requests in a seven-year period.

According to the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, Comal County Judge Danny Scheel was fed up with local newspaper publisher Doug Kirk’s constant requests for information and asked Miller to file the bill.

“We’ve been dealing with this monkey for years,” Scheel told the Star-Telegram in March. “These are the kind of individuals we want … to be able to get off of our backs.”

Scheel said that the county has spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours researching for Kirk’s requests. Scheel said that Kirk has made such exhaustive requests as all financial records of every county department and every piece of paper with his name on it. Then, said Scheel, he never returns to pick up his requested materials.

“Our employees have other things to do than satisfy someone whose only motive is to harass the county court at the taxpayers’ expense,” Scheel said. “We need relief.”

But, according to Chief of Staff Fritz Reinig, Rep. Miller has “opted to pursue other legislative priorities” after discussing the bill with other stakeholders.

“[Rep. Miller] felt that there should be a proliferation of requester abuse before he was to do something that affected the whole state,” said Reinig.

As for future FOI bills, Reinig said this experience would not deter Rep. Miller from filing similar legislation, but that he would listen to any concerns FOI advocacy groups had. Reinig also said that he didn’t think pulling the bill would ruffle too many feathers back home.

“[Rep. Miller] didn’t want his constituents to become disenchanted with him, but at the same time he had to do what was right for the state,” Reinig said. “I think they understand his concerns.”

While FOI advocates were concerned about the consequences of this bill, many understood why Miller initially filed it.

“[This bill] was kind of like taking a sledge hammer to a mosquito,” said Ken Whalen, executive vice president of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association. “But, being a freshman, you’ll file stuff just to explore the issue. Thankfully, he found out that this wasn’t something he wanted to pursue.”

But the judge remains confidant that time is on his side. “Sooner or later, the snowball is going to get big enough to where it will get someone’s attention in Austin,” he said.