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Advance payment for political ads is wise business decision

Q: Can you tell me if there’s a law that requires political advertising to be paid for in advance?

City council shrinks window on agenda for comments by public

Q: Our city council cut down on the public comment period in its meetings by restricting the subject matter of comments to items on the meeting agenda. Also, no matter how many people are signed up to speak, the council is limiting the total amount of time allotted for any agenda item to 10 minutes. Are these changes in compliance with the Texas open meetings law and are they somehow tied to the governor’s COVID-19 order?

Extra care called for in publishing reaction to social media post

Q: A resident of our county, on her Facebook page, posted information supporting one candidate and casting innuendos on the other in a July runoff. The social media post is a string of allegations in the form of questions that could affect the election. What should we consider before we proceed with our coverage?

Public attendance restrictions on open meetings have not been lifted

Q: Recently our governor and attorney general seem to be pushing to re-open life as it was before the coronavirus pandemic. I have a city council meeting on “Zoom” tonight, which isn’t a problem, except that the agenda is too danged long! Have we gotten any guidance on how the governor’s more recent COVID-19 related executive orders affect open meetings?

Health agencies post ‘minimum necessary’ COVID-19 data

Q: Since we don’t have a county health department, I am getting my statistics from the county health authority and its information comes from the Texas Department of State Health services, but the official I get the information from is a bit unclear on exactly what can be released. Can you point me where to find exactly what can be released?

Texas law contains provisions for public information cost waiver, reduction

Q: What should I be charged for public information from our local police department? I believe they are trying to overcharge so I will drop my requests.

USPS: Digital subscribers pay separate subscription fee for digital product

Q: What is the U.S. Postal Service’s definition of a paid digital subscriber and what are the USPS requirements for reporting paid digital subscribers on postal forms?

Officials remove ‘crawl’ from livestream of open meeting

Q: One of our local governmental entities, during a properly called open meeting, deleted comments posted on the livestream of that meeting as it was occurring. Is that allowed?

Candidate filings belong to public as soon as submitted

Q: The filing deadline for candidates in the March 3, 2020 primary election was Dec. 9. When were getting close to the deadline I was working on an article that included information on all candidates who filed to run.
I received word from a credible person that a sheriff’s office employee was going to file to run against the incumbent sheriff, but the candidate wanted to talk to me before I identified him in my news story, which could have been a delay tactic. Candidate filings are public records, correct?

Voters can petition district court to remove a school board trustee

Q: At a school board meeting, a local attorney who was present said only the Texas attorney general has the authority to remove a board member, or a district attorney, if court action is taken through the district court. Is this information correct?
A: Local Government Code Chapter 87, Removal of County Officers From Office; Filling Vacancies — appears to contain the information you are seeking. Please check the language of the law at: https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/LG/htm/LG.87.htm

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