DATE County Clerk or County Auditor Name _________County Address Dear ________________________ This is a request under the Texas Open Records Act, chapter 552 of the Government Code (formerly V.T.C.S. article 6252) as well as Article I, Sec. 8 of the Texas Constitution, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the common law of the State of Texas and any statute providing for public access to government information: I request that I be sent copies of the following documents or, if there are a large number, be permitted to inspect the following documents and receive copies of the ones I would like: All documents indicating any dues or fees paid by the County to any association of counties or county elected officials, including but not limited to the Texas Association of Counties, the Texas Conference of Urban Counties, and the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas All documents referencing any payments to registered lobbyists. The scope of the above requests is limited to the period from January 1, 2002 to the present date. If you have any questions about the nature or scope of this request, please contact me at the phone numbers, email address, or fax number listed above. If you determine that all or some portion of the information requested is excepted from required disclosure, I request that you advise me as to which exceptions you believe apply and immediately provide me with those documents that are reasonably separable from that which you believe is excepted. If you rely on previous determination concerning an exception, please advise me of the applicable court decision or Attorney General's opinion. If there is no such determination, please advise me of the request for such an opinion, as required under section 552.301 of the Act, and a dated copy of your letter to the Attorney General. I call your attention to section 522.353 of the Act, which provides penalties for a failure to release public records. If any records are in active use or in storage, please certify this fact in writing and set a date and hour within a reasonable time when the records can be inspected or copied. I am prepared to pay reasonable costs for copying, within the guidelines set by sections 552.261, 552.262, 552.263, 552.267, 552.268, 552.269. I also request that, pursuant to Section 552.267 of the Government Code, charges for copying the requested information be waived or reduced because "providing the copy of the information primarily benefits the general public" due to the strong public interest in transparency in the spending of public funds. I appreciate your attention to this request and expect to hear from your office within ten days. Sincerely, YOUR NAME Address Phone Number |