Lawyer says no, but… McAllen Chamber will consider requested public information

If you’ve been following this story, then you know how it’s played out so far: The Advance News Journal filed multiple public information requests (PIRs) with the McAllen Chamber of Commerce in early December (2021), but has received nothing in response.

Items requested include board minutes, annual audits, conflict-of-interest forms filled out by any board members doing business with the chamber over the past five years, a copy of the annual budgets for the past three years, and previous annual job evaluations done on former Chamber President Steve Ahlenius, per board job description.

With 24 years under his belt as McAllen Chamber CEO/ president going into fiscal year 2022, Ahlenius stunned his board members last October with a surprise letter of resignation submitted at the end of a regular board meeting. The new fiscal year had just begun, and suddenly, the longtime president was leaving? Yep, and with no real explanation offered to board members, according to several sources.

One week Ahlenius was here; and the next (approximately), his house was sold, and he had moved out of the Rio Grande Valley. No retirement party, no long goodbyes. Nada. He has never said publicly why he left so abruptly.

For approximately eight weeks after The Advance first submitted its public information requests in early December, it received no word from the McAllen Chamber with regard to the requests. A phone call went unanswered as did several emails.

Last month, however, through official channels, The Advance received a copy of an email sent to McAllen City Manager Roy Rodriguez from McAllen City Attorney Isaac Tawil discussing chamber matters. In that letter, the city attorney basically says, no, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce is not subject to the Texas Public Information Act (Open Records Act).

According to Tawil, the chamber is not subject to open records (Public Information Act) because of a 2015 Texas Supreme Court opinion that defines “governmental body.”

In his email, the city attorney writes that part of the argument being made (by The Advance News) in favor of opening up the chamber books, so to speak, is that the McAllen Chamber of Commerce is “supported in whole or (in) part by public funds from the City of McAllen and therefore within the definition of a governmental body for purposes of the Act.”

That would be true, but The Advance is also arguing that the McAllen Chamber is subject to the Public Information Act based on a revision made to it by the state legislature in 2019, which now states that if a chamber takes in more than $1 million from an outside source (in this case, the city of McAllen), it is subject to the Act.

There is another stipulation as mentioned in previous McAllen Chamber stories published in The Advance, which would indicate that it is subject to the Public Information Act based on the Texas Secretary of State’s office, which states that if a nonprofit corporation is on file with the state, and receives more than $10,000 from an outside source, then its business should be available for public review.

The email from the McAllen city attorney, however, focuses mainly on the Texas Supreme Court’s definition of “governmental body,” and in that court decision, it’s defined as a body that could operate without public funding.

In the case of the McAllen Chamber, writes Attorney Tawil, “the chamber affirmatively represented to us last year that it (could) continue to exist and perform without any funding by McAllen (city).”

Meaning, according to the chamber, if the City of McAllen discontinued contributing the approximate $1 million to it every year, it could still survive, presumably from chamber memberships and other outside sources.

Because of that, and because of the Texas Supreme Court opinion that defined “governmental body” in that context, writes Attorney Tawil, “Therefore, we concluded that the (McAllen) chamber is not within the definition of governmental body and is not subject to the Public Information Act because it is not sustained by public funds as that term is defined under the Greater Houston Partnership case.”

That is the case that brought about the Texas Supreme Court decision that defined “governmental body.” At the time, 2015, the Texas Attorney General’s office had ruled that the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce was not a governmental body and not subject to the (Public Information Act) despite receiving public funding that represented 41 percent of the chamber’s annual budget.

Chamber May Cooperate

There still may be hope. As they say, few things are written in stone.

After the city attorney’s email was forwarded to The Advance, a city representative called to ask that we re-send the public information requests sent to the McAllen Chamber of Commerce back in December (2021).

The Advance News’ public info requests would be reviewed, presumably by both the city representative and chamber board members, and a determination made as to whether it is, or is not, within the chamber’s best interests to keep what would seem innocuous — board minutes, budgets, audits, etc. — private, or release them into the public venue.

State Rep. Opines

In the Texas House of Representatives, Terry Canales (D-Dist. 40) is known among his colleagues as a guy who extols the virtues of governmental body transparency.

He has twice won the Transparency Champion Award from the Texas Press Association (no small feat), and for the past decade, Canales’ name has been attached to the bulk of the transparency legislation that has emanated from the Texas House.

Canales is also the current chairman of the House Transportation Committee, which carries more than a little weight. Making some history, Canales is the first Hispanic to hold the chair.

When asked to weigh in on the McAllen Chamber and its unwillingness to respond to a Public Information Request seeking access to chamber records, Canales said:

“Without knowing the full details of the financial structure of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, they should know that in certain cases they might very well be subject to the Texas Public Information Act. Parts of their organization which are supported in whole or in part by public funds might be subject to public information law. As an organization that is partially funded with City of McAllen taxpayer dollars, there is a strong interest for the people of the city to know how those dollars are spent at the Chamber.”

Canales said that secrecy is of little help to the public.

“If taxpayer dollars are flowing out of cities to nonprofits organizations like chambers that are doing an extensive amount of government work or essentially acting as an arm of the government, the public should be able to see how that money is spent. Unnecessary secrecy only serves to hurt the public’s trust in our institutions. Access to information is absolutely essential to the press and general public-at-large, as this information is the greatest tool the public can use to hold our elected officials accountable.”

Ed. Note: McAllen Chamber Executive Board Members include: Chairwoman Annette Franz; Chairman-Elect Stephan Wingert; Vice-Chairwoman Cris Rivera; and Treasurer Omar Quintanilla.

Board members include: Joseph Habbouche, David Hernandez, Kay Jancik, Jim Darling, Todd Mann, Carlos Melguizo, Francisco Paez, Hershal Patel, Elva Cerda, Kelly Nassour, Pablo Tagle, Robert Vackar, Francy Jones, Adrian Villarreal, and Tania Ramirez.