Susan Mumford, the Executive Secretary for the State Records Committee, wrote to Jerry Dearinger (Legal Analyst) and Ken Cromar (Researcher) for Cedar Hills Citizens for Responsible Government (CHCRG) to inform that a Hearing has been granted for April 10, 2014.  (see PDF of letter below)

The Hearing would address our concerns regarding the City’s DENIAL of our revised GRAMA Request as submitted December 9, 2013, and APPEALS for email / text records.

CHCRG has attempted three times to invite City officials to meet with the State Records Ombudsman in mediation in order to avoid the need to request a Hearing before the Records Committee.  The City insisted that they would not meet or answer our questions through the Ombudsman until we filed an Appeal.  Despite filing the Appeal, the Mayor then prepared a list of preconditions before he would allow city officials to meet with us.

We have provided a written response, and trust that the Mayor & Council will see the value of meeting in mediation with the Ombudsman, and find a mutually beneficial resolution.

If so, we can cancel the Hearing. If not, then the Mayor and Council may again choose to again spend thousands of dollars in legal fees in order to collect the $900 they currently demand.  (During the 2012 Hearing before the Records Committee resulted in the City being ORDERED to collect and provide email records from city and personal account, and provide them to CHCRG, during which city officials reportedly chose to spend over $30,000 in order to collect $766.)

We believe negotiations with the Ombudsman will better serve the interest of Cedar Hills taxpayers and the release of public records to CHCRG, so we can then in turn share them on this website, — in the public interest.

To read the full letter from the Records Committee see… Records Committee Grants CHCRG Hearing 7Mar2014