A third set of public documents have been released by the city to InstantNewsWestU, containing more than 100 additional documents, following a second public information request regarding West U Town Center.
The third set of documents, which were released by the city on Tuesday, contains more than 100 pages of e-mails between the city and West U Town Center Committee applicants.
InstantNewsWestU filed its first public information request with City Secretary Thelma Lenz on Oct. 6, requesting to view “any and all e-mails, memos, documents or correspondence to, from or between the city manager, mayor, city council members and West U Town Center committee members and any and all documents generated by the West U Town Center committee regarding West U Town Center from December 14, 2009 to October 6, 2010.”
InstantNewsWestU first reported the committee’s plans of a three-story structure, lining Edloe Street and University Boulevard, on Oct. 5.
According to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, a government body has 10 working days to release the requested documents, ask for an attorney general’s office for a ruling, or provide the requesting party with a reason why the deadline cannot be met.
The city released two PDF documents to InstantNewsWestU, regarding the Town Center, on Oct. 22.
The few documents that were released shed little light on how the committee’s drawings for the proposed town center were developed.
InstantNewsWestU filed its second public information request to Lenz on Oct. 29 because the documents provided by the city did not appear to be fully responsive to the parameters of the request.
“The documents do not reflect any meeting agendas, committee notes or council minutes that reflect the creation of the committee or the appointment of members or any indication of any city funds expended for the committee’s efforts,” read the request. “The documents released include an artist’s rendering of a proposed shopping center and parking garage; however, there are no documents reflecting who engaged the architect to create this rendering, how that architect was selected, invoices for the work or indications of payment. I am again requesting any and all documents in the possession of the City of West University Place that are in any way related to the West University Place Town Center Committee.”
Lenz responded on Oct. 29 with this comment:
“The documents provided were responsive to your request as we understood it. Regarding this request, we will provide you with the documents as soon possible.”
The second set of documents, which included more than 100 new documents, was released by the city to InstantNewsWestU on Nov. 8.
The documents that were released after the second public information request include weekly council reports by Public Works Director Chris Peifer, city council meeting minutes regarding West U Town Center, reports to council by City Manager Michael Ross and 99 pages of e-mails from Town Center committee members.
InstantNewsWestU asked Lenz how she missed more than 100 documents from the first public information request and she responded with this comment:
“I didn’t miss the documents from your first request. As I stated previously, we responded to your original request as we understood it.”
Lenz followed up with InstantNewsWestU on Monday, saying that she was so busy gathering documents from others that she forgot to send documents from her own files.
The third set of documents was released on Tuesday. In total, more than 200 documents have been released to InstantNewsWestU in regards to the Town Center.
CB says
I am completely against this Town Center idea, particularly the parking garage. Several West U residents with whom I have spoken feel the same way. I am particularly unhappy that City management time and perhaps funds are being spent on “plans” when there did not seem to be a citizen or business entity that requested it. This is a bad idea, and would be a traffic and safety nightmare.
Ms. Pat Malone says
You remind me of “go getter” Jim Jenkins when he and I decided to go on a discovery mission against Dick Rockenbaugh (City Mgr). Jim would do behind the scene “discovery” and I would follow up with Letters to the Editor publicizing the findings. We accomplished our mission and ran Dick’s crooked ass out of office and back to Pearland.
Ahhh, those were the days.
Stay with it!
Surely the city secretary can read and interpret “all e-mails, memos, documents…” I’m wondering who might instruct her to release only a few items to perhaps, appease a news reporter? Certainly it seems she wouldn’t take instructions from city council members. Hmmm…might the city manager have instructed her regarding what to release? What’s the motive behind attempting to hide all the information? I suspect those answers, in part, are contained within those 100 documents and we’re all anxiously awaiting what you’ll uncover.
I will repeat what I have already said in previous comments.
The architectural rendering is of a building that however schematic and conceptual, cannot be built under the current ordinances. In addition, the design is totally insensitive to the scale and character of its surroundings.
To give readers an idea of the scale of this building (or whatever proposal may be hidden behind this initial scheme), think of the following:
Imagine the new Southside City Hall building with one more floor on top, (a third floor); now extend above those three floors the corner tower piece. Now multiply the mass of that building seven or eight times down Edloe. That is what we’ll get if something like this is built.
This is a monstrosity to say the least. If it is indeed the intent of City Council to change the existing ordinances to allow something of this scale to be built, then Council has completely lost touch with the character and residential scale and ambiance of West University.
saerabck says
Think about it do we really want more traffic around the elementary school, creating a bigger chance for kids to get hurt by drivers who are more focused on getting a parking space than on the road and kids crossing it.