The city of Corpus Christi must make public all of the personal financial disclosure forms filed by its mayor and city council members in response to Texas Watchdog's request to see the documents, the state attorney general's office says.

Texas Watchdog filed a request earlier this year with the city government for copies of the 2007 forms, filed last April, under the state's Public Information Act, along with pay data for all city employees.

If you're not familiar with the forms, they're required to be filled out by many city officials across Texas, as well as by state legislators and other state officials, including the state school board members. The forms require the official to list all their sources of income so that the public can better determine whether that official has a potential conflict of interest.

The city sent us the pay data -- we posted a story on it yesterday -- but the city wanted to withhold some of the personal information on the disclosure forms. It sent a letter to state Attorney General Greg Abbott's office, arguing that state law allowed city employees to voluntarily choose to withhold the information in question. We also wrote to the attorney general, arguing that if public officials are allowed to withhold information on a disclosure form -- well, that pretty much undercuts the idea of it being "disclosure," doesn't it?

I opened the mail this afternoon to find a letter from Ms. Amy L.S. Shipp in the attorney general's office. She sided with us, saying that, as state law says that the city folks must fill out the forms each year, and that the forms must be public record, then the city cannot withhold any of the information on the forms. (To see the full text of Shipp's letter on the AG's Web site, click here.)

We'll be in touch with Corpus Christi City Hall next week, and as soon as we get the forms, we'll post them here.

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