Details of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s February trip to California will remain undisclosed. In March, UT-San Diego, a newspaper, made a Texas Public Information Act request for a list of the businesses that Perry visited when he traveled to California to urge Golden State employers to move to the Lone Star State. In response to the UT-San Diego request, the governor’s office asked the Texas Office of Attorney GeneralGreg Abbott whether it had to release all the information requested. On May 20, the OAG ruled the governor didn’t have to release the list of businesses. The governor’s office had asked for an exception, based on Government Code §552.104, to the Public Information Act regulations requiring disclosures. That’s according to a May 20 OAG letter to the governor’s office, announcing the ruling, which the OAG sent to Texas Lawyer June 4. Section 552.104 allows for an exception to public-disclosure requirements if "the governmental body" requesting it demonstrates that "it has specific marketplace interests" and "a specific threat of actual or potential harm to its interests in a particular competitive situation," according to the May 20 letter. The OAG letter informs Perry’s office: "You state the information you have highlighted identifies entities and their representatives considering expansion or relocation to Texas, as well as those that have been chosen as potential economic development incentive recipients. You explain that the governor’s office is currently negotiating potential approvals or contracts with the entities at issue, and contracts with these entities have not been executed. You argue release of this information, before contracts are signed or final approval given, would disadvantage Texas by permitting other states to directly approach these entities with competing incentives. Based on these representations and our review, we find you have demonstrated the governor’s office has specific marketplace interests and may be considered a ‘competitor’ for purposes of section 552.104." Thomas Kelley, a spokesman for the OAG, said the office does not comment on rulings. Lucy Nashed, the governor’s spokeswoman, refers questions related to the ruling to the OAG.
Rolling Stone
After serving 21 years on the 4th Court of Appeals, Chief Justice Catherine Stone says she won’t run again when her term ends in December 2014. "It’s time to try something new and different, and the court’s in great shape, so it’s a good time to pass the baton to someone else," says Stone. She adds, "I’m deeply honored to have been in this position in this court as a public servant. Deeply honored, beyond anything I could imagine growing up in the circumstances I grew up in. . . . My story would be similar to many of the abused children whose cases we decide." Stone says after winning the Democratic primary in 1993, she was appointed as a justice and she subsequently won her general election in 1994. Voters elected her as chief justice in 2008. When asked to reflect on changes during her tenure, Stone says, "We see less personal injury cases and perhaps more probate and land and family cases." She adds, "Certainly, we’ve moved to the modern age of technology, and our library is mostly on our computer these days, and I think the expectation of practitioners and litigants is that opinions be issued quite promptly." In 1994, she recalls seeing more than 200 cases that had been pending for six months or longer, but today the court has no cases that old. When Stone’s term ends, she says she may practice law or enter the business world. "I’m going to spend at least the next year or so reflecting on all the possibilities that someone with my age and experience and education all the possibilities that will be available to me," Stone says. "No rush."
