Back on February 20, I filed an open records request with the City of Dallas to get information about the convention center hotel project, along with any communications between Mayor Leppert and council members regarding Lynn Flint Shaw, the former DART board chair who was killed by husband Rufus less than one month later. In addition, I tossed in a request for communications between Mayor Tom and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, since Schutze was working on this cover story for the paper version of Unfair Park at the time. (As I didn't get anything between Leppert and Caraway, I guess they only speak in person or on the phone. Smart move, gentlemen.)
After taking months to gather the information, the City of Dallas let me know that there was some stuff it didn't feel comfortable putting in my hands, and the city was taking it up with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. In the meantime, it surrendered part of the request, which resulted in this June 2 story about the land purchase for the proposed hotel.
I never heard back about Abbott's ruling, and, to be honest, I kinda forgot about it -- that is, until today, when I got this letter from the city informing me that Abbott has ruled that some of the information could be withheld, but the rest had to be released. This didn't make Dallas's city attorneys happy, so they decided to duke it out in court, filing suit against Abbott.
At this point, it's impossible to know what, exactly, the city doesn't want me to see. But if it's worth suing the Attorney General, then consider me tickled at the thought of getting a peek.
