action might be warranted:

Certain individuals requested copies of the 1972 annual report of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) during the time when the Nixon Administration and the Director of OEO were attempting to dismantle that agency. OEO is required under the law that created it to submit an annual report to Congress each year. The report for 1972 had been completed and 10,000 copies were in storage under lock and key. The director, committed to shutting down OEO for good, refused to release it because it contained favorable information about his agency. In this case there was absolutely no basis under any law for withholding the report. In fact, a separate law required disclosure. The Justice Department refused to represent OEO because the denial was so patently illegal. A judge eventually ordered the report released.

Another example where disciplinary action might be called for would be the refusal of a school board to open a meeting to adopt its budget when the law clearly requires such meetings to be open. Α citizen should not be forced to go to court each time similar meetings of similar bodies are improperly closed. If the officials involved were personally accountable for unlawful secrecy, they might be discouraged from harassing citizens by forcing them to go to court to have their rights recognized.

As society becomes more complex and interdependent, so governmental institutions become larger and command a more pervasive role in the lives of citizens. This reality cannot be ignored. A democracy can

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be open and resilient only so long as the public controls governmental decisions. An absolute prerequisite to control is knowledge. Without aranteed access by the public to governmental information and meetings of governmental bodies, no effort to decentralize decision-making or to otherwise increase public participation can succeed.

THE ACCESS LAWS OF TEXAS

Texas has two statutes, an open meetings or "sunshine" law and an open records or "freedom of information" law, which protect citizens' right to know what the government is doing. These two laws and the leadership of Attorney General John Hill have given Texas one of the most comprehensive frameworks for open government in the country. This section describes these laws and how they can be used. Their deficiencies are also discussed.

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THE TEXAS OPEN RECORDS ACT

The Texas Open Records Act (VTCS, Article 6252-17a) gives any person the right to obtain all information, with a number of specific exemptions, possessed by any governmental body, quasi-governmental body, and any organization, including a corporation, that spends or that is supported in whole or in part by public funds. Thus, all state, city, county, and special units of government in the state, including agencies and committees that operate under them, are covered. Only the judiciary is exempted, though, with respect to most court records, the attorney general has held that common law principles in Texas require their disclosure even though the open records law does not apply. (Attorney General Open Records Decision No. 25, March 1974.)

It is significant that the law refers to "all information," not merely documents and records. By using this broader term, the Texas legislature avoided the problem that has come up frequently in other states of deciding what is or what is not a "record" or "document."

The law allows any person, regardless of the purpose of the request, to ask for any information in the possession of any level of government. A government agency may withhold access only if the material requested falls within one of sixteen specific exemptions. Even if an exemp

tion is applicable, however, the government agency may release the information if it decides that the public interest warrants it. In other words, the exemptions do not prohibit disclosure. They merely give agencies the right to withhold information in certain limited circumstances. And an

agency may be forced by the courts or the attorney general to disclose otherwise exempted material if that agency violates one of the procedural uirements of the act.

Some state freedom of information laws apply only to certain information required by law to be made or kept by the government. In this way states have limited the scope of their laws. The law in Texas is broader and, like the federal law, applies to every piece of information actually in the possession of a governmental body. For example, if an individual writes a letter to a state agency, that letter is a public document subject to the act.

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How to Request a Record

The chief administrative officer of a government agency is deemed by the statute to be the custodian of public records and is required to maintain all records in the agency's possession and to make them available to any nerson who requests them. If an informal request to a lower level offi

1 or employee is not granted promptly and fully, a formal written request should be directed to the chief administrative officer. Neither the chief administrator nor any other government employee may ask the requestor why he or she wants or needs the desired records. Requestors need only supply their names and a description of the documents they wish to see.

After a request is made, if the custodian cannot locate the records or if they are in active use, that fact must be stated in writing and the custodian must set a date within a reasonable time when the information will be made available. The custodian and his agents must grant