Caldwell County DA loses battle to keep secrets
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Caldwell County District Attorney Fred Weber continues to waste tax payer money fighting the release of public records.
What is he hiding?
The Texas Attorney General made it clear last week Weber has to give the records up, hopefully ending the three-month fight to keep secrets from Caldwell County residents.
Weber doesn’t want to let the public see his communications with former County Judge Tom Bonn, who left office and apparently discarded all his e-mail communications.
Dolcefino Consulting sought the e-mails and cell phone records as part of an investigation into contacts between the Green Group garbage men and County officials before the proposed 130 Environmental Park landfill was announced in 2013.
The e-mails are gone. So are the phone records, and Weber promised to get to the bottom of it. Instead he is fighting to keep you from knowing just how hard he did his job as District Attorney.
Dolcefino Consulting asked for computer inventories, in hopes of finding out where the computer Judge Bonn used has gone. Again, a fight.
Dolcefino Consulting asked to see e-mails between Weber and Judge Bonn. Again a fight.
After the Attorney General ruled the records we seek are public, we sent an e-mail to the DA asking for the records. He responded that our request has been forwarded to law firm Allison, Bass & Magee, for response.
Now the DA will pay lawyers up to $240 dollars an hour to simply mail documents Weber could have turned over for the price of a postage stamp, or they could decide to sue the state to keep the secrets.
So far Caldwell County has wasted $14,000 paying lawyers to respond to requests for public information in our investigation of the 130 Environmental Park landfill. Money that should be spent fighting a 17 story tower of trash that will be visible for miles, and maybe smelt for miles more.
Oh, and that 14 grand was just for bills through February of 2016.
Shame on you Mr. Weber. There is a reason they call it public information.
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