Before REO Speedwagon headlined San Antonio’s Tricentennial celebration on New Year’s Eve, the poofy-haired pop band tried to keep its entertainment contract from being released to the public, arguing it would “cause substantial harm.”
But in a victory for open-records advocates, the Texas Attorney General ruled last week that the contract is a public record.
The San Antonio Express-News published the contract’s details Friday in a story by City Hall reporter Josh Baugh. Readers learned for the first time that the San Antonio Tricentennial Commission, a nonprofit entity set up by the city of San Antonio, paid REO Speedwagon $232,500.
Why, you might ask, was obtaining this contract so difficult? Why did it take months to see the light of day?
After all, the Texas Public Information Act clearly states that contracts with government agencies are public records. No tax dollars went to REO Speedwagon, but the Tricentennial Commission serves as an arm of the city. For years, contracts between companies and government agencies were routinely released to the public.
But a June 19, 2015 ruling by the Texas Supreme Court changed all that.
Boeing vs. the Attorney General
In a San Antonio court case involving Boeing and the Port Authority of San Antonio, Boeing was trying to stymie the release of its rental contract with the port authority to a former Boeing employee.
Boeing argued that it had standing to challenge the release of the contract, and that its public release would provide an advantage to competitors. Over the span of a decade, trial and appellate courts had ruled against Boeing.
But the company appealed to the Texas Supreme Court and the justices agreed with Boeing — opening the door for groups such as REO Speedwagon to try the same strategy to keep government contracts out of the public eye.
“Everything from school bus finances to power plant construction costs to a university’s beer marketing agreement have been kept off limits because of the Boeing ruling,” wrote Kelley Shannon, the executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, in a November 2017 post decrying the court decision.
Read more: Open records quiz: Can officials question your motives when you file an open records request?
Companies and agencies trying to censor records under the Boeing decision have cited the court ruling 1,500 times, Shannon wrote:
The city of Austin recently used the ruling in an effort to keep secret the names of finalists in its city manager search, saying it didn’t want to give competing cities a hiring advantage. After public pressure and a lawsuit by the Austin American-Statesman, the city said it would soon release the finalists’ names. The Statesman has already figured out several candidates’ names and reported them.
In the Rio Grande Valley, the Agua Special Utility District attempted to use the Boeing ruling as a reason to keep secret nearly $500,000 in severance payments it made to two former employees.
The continuing poster child case for the Boeing problem is the city of McAllen’s refusal to say how much taxpayer money it paid to entertainer Enrique Iglesias to perform in a holiday festival.
Clearly, there’s deep erosion occurring in the Texas Public Information Act. Texas needs to re-examine its commitment to the people’s right to know.
So how did REO Speedwagon’s contract end up getting published?
REO Speedwagon’s contract in San Antonio
A company that wants to keep a contract secret still has to make its case with the Attorney General’s office. In this March 19 letter, the Texas Attorney General ruled that REO Speedwagon’s contract was a public document because Creative Artists Agency, the firm that represents the band, hadn’t made a strong argument to keep the contract out of the public realm:
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“We find that CAA has failed to demonstrate the release of its information would result in substantial harm to its competitive position,” the letter states. A business must show “specific factual evidence that substantial competitive injury would result from release” of the sought records.
Until Texas lawmakers pass legislation to undo the damage from the Boeing decision, the REO Speedwagon case demonstrates there’s still a sliver of hope for anyone who hopes to learn how government agencies are spending their money. A company can still fail to sway the Attorney General’s office.
But it can easily go the other way.
Pat Benatar, another 1980s rocker who also performed at the New Year’s Eve gala, signed a contract with the Tricentennial Commission, just like REO Speedwagon. But we still don’t know how much money she received.
Benatar’s people made a more compelling argument to withhold the contract, according to the Attorney General’s letter, and her contract didn’t have to be released.
Total heartbreaker.
