in Houston, Texas

The state prison system can keep confidential the names of the people present in the death chamber when a Texas inmate is executed, because those people would be at risk of harm if their identities became public, the state attorney general's office says.

The prisons can also withhold records identifying death row inmates' visitors and the people with whom they have corresponded, the AG's office said in a Nov. 12 letter to a top prison system lawyer, because those non-inmates have a constitutional right to privacy.

Of course, the AG's letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice didn't offer this bit of advice, but we will: Given the events of the past several weeks, if you want to know who's been visiting a death row inmate, why don't you just call him on his cellphone and ask him?

Some other interesting cases

We'll take a random look at some, but not all, of the open records letters dated Nov. 12, and which the AG's office has posted on its Web site. We've also plotted these on a Google map (click here to jump to it, below), so you can take a look at the entire state and pick them out by geography:

The AG sided with the city of Beaumont in saying that the city did not have to release logs by the pilot of helicopters used by the city, given that the pilot maintained the log himself and no city resources were used to maintain it.

Police in Martindale must release some traffic ticket information that the city claimed was a judicial record, and thus, not covered by the state's public information law.

The city of Bryan can withhold certain information from a police officer's personnel record.

San Antonio must cough up some records because it failed to do some procedural stuff under the state Public Information Act. Woops.

You know how juvenile criminal records are confidential, supposedly to protect the child's privacy, and that's a pretty ironclad rule? It's so ironclad, the AG says one person, who is apparently now an adult, can't even get juvenile records about himself from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department.

On the flip side, one person in Plano can get access to his own blood-alcohol test results.

(One important point to make: In some open records cases, the AG's office has little leeway in making open records decisions: The office is bound by the patchwork quilt of exceptions created by the state legislature that is the Texas open records law. And the AG serves in a quasi-judicial capacity when it hands down its rulings.)

TxDOT can sit on inspection reports for "traffic control devices," the AG says, citing a federal law. You can thank the railroad lobbyists in Washington for this one: The genesis of this law is that it was intended to keep people from suing railroads when their loved ones get killed at poorly marked at-grade crossings -- after all, the most efficient way to stop people from suing about unsafe crossings is to prevent people from getting access to data that shows how unsafe the crossings are. (Food for thought: The commissioner of highways in Tennessee thumbed his nose at this law a few years ago and now makes the unsafe-grade-crossing listing public.)

League City may withhold an e-mail between the city attorney and some city workers that apparently pertained to the requestor's property and a certain subdivision.

The Dallas Police Department must release some information, but withhold some other information, requested about its Chief's Ethics Awards for Police Kids.

Telecom provider Embarq, which just got some kind of contract with the state prison system, has asked to see records pertaining to its own RFP for the contract and those of competitors. The prisons thought rivals UniSys and GTL might not want Embarq seeing their records. The AG says the state can withhold Embarq's proposal and the information marked confidential by Unisys and GTL in their proposals, but everything else (except some insurance information) has to be released.

Texas environmental officials must keep confidential the identity of a person who informed on someone else about water pollution, but other information about the tip must be released.

The city of Cedar Park must release "internal investigative records" of the local police that it wanted to withhold, but it can withhold other requested information.

State insurance regulators must withhold the e-mail address of someone who complained to them, I assume about insurance agents or something.

The city of Fort Worth must release records pertaining to certain EMS calls if the requestor has obtained signed consent forms from the patients involved. If not, they can't let that person see the records.

Harris County must withhold pricing information and some customer information included by private firms QuadraMed and Quantros in a recent RFP for the Harris County Hospital District, but most of the rest of the RFPs must be released.

Whatever is going on in Georgetown, it sounds really convoluted. The AG says they need to dispose of some records.

From the "duh" file: Two companies marked their RFPs to a government agency as "confidential" and then argued that their materials were not public record because the companies are bound by confidentiality agreements. But the AG says that doesn't mean their documents can be shielded from public view. (This had to do with someone requesting some records in Arlington about some software RFPs.) Also, don't try to claim that your client list is a protected "trade secret" when you publish your clients' names on your company Web site.

Comal ISD in New Braunfels must release information about a mold remediation settlement because the two private firms involved did not send in statements within 10 days about why their info should remain confidential.

Someone wants a bunch of records about the athletic program at Texas A&M's Corpus Christi campus. As best as I can tell, the AG says most of it must be released, apparently, with the exception of a piece of information that is protected by attorney-client privilege and the e-mail address of one person.

The Dallas County district attorney must withhold some information requested about a specific person who filed a benefits claim with the county Health and Human Services Department -- the AG says that information falls under the privacy provision that protects information that is intimate, embarrassing or not of legitimate public interest. However, it sounds like most of the rest of the requested information must be released.

The University of Texas at San Antonio, which was asked to release information about an undescribed "project," must withhold someone's personal cell number if that person is a current or former university employee. However, it sounds like most of the rest of the requested information must be made public.

Requests for police info.

And there were a lot of less interesting situations involving fairly routine requests for police information -- police reports, incident reports, accident reports, arrest records, and the like. Some can be made public, the AG's office said, but a lot of the requested records will stay closed:

The city of Schertz can withhold information about an "incident" that involved juveniles and a pending police investigation.

Baytown can withhold some criminal incident report information that someone wanted to see.

Corpus Christi police must release an accident report.

Dallas police must make public a fingerprint of a child sex offender accused of abusing another child.

Fort Bend County may withhold information in a requested "full report" -- I assume this is a police report, but it doesn't say, and I'm not 100% sure.

An unnamed government agency represented by a lawyer in Richardson may withhold information on an accident and offense report for a man from North Richland Hills.

San Antonio police can withhold a juvenile's rap sheet.

Royse City can withhold the information "marked in green" by the AG's office on an unspecified report.

EL Paso police can sit on information about a possible juvenile offender requested by the child's parent.

Baytown police can redact from an incident report material that is "intimate and embarrassing and of no public interest."

The city of Trophy Club can sit on information about an alleged juvenile offender requested by the kid's parents.

Lorena police can withhold records pertaining to a certain address since 2004 because that person is part of a pending investigation.

Plano PD does not have to release a certain person's entire criminal history because it would be embarrassing to them and violate their privacy. "Furthermore, a compilation of a private citizen's criminal history is generally not of legitimate concern to the public."

Lake Worth must make public most of an incident report that lists a juvenile as a witness, but not as a suspect.



(Picture of of confidential document from the National Archives of Australia.)

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