Back in August, I had an open records request that I sent directly to Danny Chambers on July 15, 2024. This is what I asked for.
All emails received by your office that were sent to you by Cyndi (Cindy) Gray or sent by you to Cyndi Gray for the dates between 1 Sep 2023 and July 15, 2024
Any and all records of complaints, grievances filed by Cyndi Gray OR pertaining to or mentioning Cyndi Gray for the dates between 1 Sep 2023 and July 15, 2024
He did not reply, did not contest sending the information as an opinion to AG. If he did not have the records requested, he could have said, “I do not have those records”, although the first part in particular was emails between him and Cyndi Gray. He did nothing to answer me before the deadline. A recourse for citizens who believe an entity is not complying with open records requests within deadlines is to call the AG office hotline and, if the attorney who answers the phone agrees, get the opportunity to file a complaint. Doing this is, frankly, a pain in the wazoo, because the caller always has to leave a message and then wait for a call back, which can come anytime over the course of a day or two. If the caller is not there or doesn’t have the phone handy, there is no second callback from the AG and the caller has to call again from scratch. I did reach the AG and speak to him, was given a reference number and sent in my complaint.
I saw Chambers at a recent county commissioner meeting. I told him I had filed a complaint and he told me he had not gotten the emails from the IT guy AND that he had asked Hannah the HR person and she said there were no records. I was a little miffed and told him he could have at least answered back *something*. He at no time sent me any written communication to tell me he was going to ask HR about this, apparently did not ask HR to contact me, so I had no way of knowing he had done this via the email communication I specifically asked for. I say this because, to me, if he did not have the grievances, he took it upon himself to go to HR to ask, ie, he took the responsibility. It would have been fine for him to write me back that he did not have those records and I needed to ask elsewhere and if so, I would have then tried to determine who was the best person to ask. He did not. He, again, did nothing.
The Attorney General’s office sent him, in response to my complaint, the following, on August 15, 2024.
Dear Judge Chambers
The Office of the Attorney General (the “OAG”) has received a complaint from XXXXX alleging Somervell County has failed to respond appropriately to a request for information. The complaint was assigned ID# XXXXXX Please see attached documents regarding the complaint.
A response may be submitted by fax to the Education and Enforcement Section of the Open Records Division at (512) 481-1992 or mail to P.O. Box 12548, Austin, Texas 78711.
To submit a response through the online form (https://oag.my.site.com/OpenRecords/s/), you must include the full complaint ID number provided above in order to submit your documentation.
Sincerely,
Education and Enforcement Section
Open Records Division
There were 3 documents attached. One of them indicated that he had to provide a written response to their letter within 10 business days and there was also a certification form he had to fill out.
Chambers asked me on August 26 to come down to get the records, one part of which, emails between him and Gray, was on a thumb drive, with item 2 (the grievances) represented as no records. I found it curious that there were no grievances filed with anybody, but you know, that’s how it was.Have to admit, I did wonder, if there actually WERE grievances at some point in time, what happened to them? Were they thrown away?
Until I got back a reply today about a different open records request that involved a purchase order referencing Gray. This request went to Nikki Weeden, the Somervell County auditor, as I believe she handles purchase orders. The reply I got back was from an attorney firm that Somervell County has apparently contracted with. This firm, acting on behalf of Somervell County, did not want to send me the purchase order, so they are contesting the open records request to the Attorney General. I certainly don’t know if they have a good reason for doing so, so it’s fine, the AG will answer.
However, in the letters they sent me, which is part of the required procedure for the AG, they have at least part of the issue with the purchase order. For example, this letter, dated August 3, 2024 says, in part “It is the position of Somervell County that the requested information is excepted from public disclosure. Therefore, we have requested an Open Records Decision from your office to determine if the requested information is required to be disclosed pursuant to the Public Information Act or may be held as confidential under applicable law.” Then
Factual Background
Cyndi Gray is an employee of Somervell County. She currently holds the position of Interim Manager/Director of the Somervell Expo Center and previously served as the Payroll Clerk. She has filed formal grievances against Tammy Ray, a County Commissioner and Valerie Williams, the County Treasurer, alleging mistreatment and a hostile work environment. Ms Gray has also made verbal threats of litigation against the County, including specifically to the County Attorney as well as other officials. These circumstances and threats prompted the County to retain the undersigned’s law firm to represent the County in connection with the anticipated litigation.
Note that the letter says Gray was Payroll Clerk, not Payroll Director. Also, that Somervell County is spending taxpayer money not only to ask for public information AG requests, but also to prepare for “anticipated litigation” from Gray.
What actually shocked me at this point is that there is, as you can see, references to at least two grievance documents from Cyndi Gray. I had asked initially, again, in the previous open records request, for
- All emails received by your office that were sent to you by Cyndi (Cindy) Gray or sent by you to Cyndi Gray for the dates between 1 Sep 2023 and July 15, 2024
- Any and all records of complaints, grievances filed by Cyndi Gray OR pertaining to or mentioning Cyndi Gray for the dates between 1 Sep 2023 and July 15, 2024
and had been told there was no information. And yet, here in this second reply email from a law firm, were references to at least two grievances that apparently existed already and that not only the law firm but apparently Somervell County would have to know of since they were acting *for* Somervell County. You see my confusion. It’s only logical that Chambers also knew of these grievances, had seen them and perhaps in some executive session sometime had discussed them with the County Attorney and other commissioners and by extension, had copies of them in his office.
I wrote back to the AG and cc’d Chambers.
Chambers took umbrage at this. Not sure why he decided to cc a whole bunch of other people but since he did, I’m putting the email screen shots here. He also clearly did not understand my point. I did not know until today that there were actually grievances that existed, because the attorney Somervell County hired told me this as a cc in the letter they sent the AG.
I added a comment to the AG after that.
Notice that Chambers said no information exists. That’s far different than “I do not have these records nor does HR who I specifically asked, on my own.”
Let’s say that had been true that “no information exists”. Well, where the fool did the grievances come from as referenced by the attorney Somervell County contracted with? Are we to assume that Chambers had no idea about this lawsuit and might not have had a copy of the grievances? Did the other commissioners have copies (particular Tammy) ? Or Valerie?
Going and asking for records that are outside of his own office is a common practice of Chambers. Here are some examples of him going beyond his own office to help Cyndi Gray. In this next example, Gray wanted to know who had done open records requests about her and sent her request to Michelle, with cc to Chambers and others. Chambers, not Michelle, sent on her request to Melanie Bybee, who is open rec admin at the Sheriff’s Department. Chambers said, in the email above to me ” you need to determine were [SIC] to address your request.” If he believes that is it up to people to sort of flounder around trying to guess the best department for a request, then why did he go the extra mile for Gray? One big difference here, incidentally, is that, while Gray was notified every step of the way (cc’d in email ) when he personally forwarded her information request, he did not do the same for me.
On this next one, Chambers apparently decided to send the request to Eddie the IT guy. You’ll also see on this email that, unlike the broad request for all open records from 2021 to 2024, Gray also asked for open records requests specifically from me or my hub. (blacked out that part). I actually am in agreement with that being done, I remember doing the same thing, ie, list of everyone’s open records for X subject from GRISD some years back.
And here is Chambers sending a request to Haley of HR on behalf of Gray
Clearly Chambers did not like me continuing to address my complaint with the Attorney General and did not like that I felt misled. Well, I did, and do. When a government entity fails to fulfill an open records request, it’s reasonable for the person waiting to wonder why. The procedure is not just a good idea but it’s the law, available to Texas citizens, and there are specific items to follow to be within the law, and that includes complaints IF those items are not followed. Also reasonable for me to be treated the same as any other requestor, AS THE LAW STATES. The law requires that something happen within 10 business days but no one has to wait for 10 business days to reply; the law says to do the requests promptly. Instead, my only options were, because he did not, to sit around and hope he finally got to them when it became a priority for him, or to complain to the AG. That does not MAKE ME AT FAULT.
