Lubbock County has been out of compliance with the state law on open records since 2021, county clerk Kelly Pinion claimed. Who’s to blame created tense moments in Monday’s Commissioner’s Court meeting.
“There’s people blaming it on IT. There’s people blaming it on the DA’s office. It doesn’t matter. Let’s get it fixed,” said Jordan Rackler, commissioner for Precinct 4, after tempers flared during meetings on the next county budget.
Mike Dalby, commissioner for Precinct 1, said, “I think that’s part of the problem. There’s a meeting here. There’s a meeting there. … At the present time. What do we know? Where have we been? Where are we at? Where are we going and get a plan of attack moving forward?”
It’s been this way since 2021, when the county switched from one system to another and then shut down online access to the public records, said Pinion in reaction to a question during a discussion about her department’s budget.
At first, public access was stopped when private data was made public during the system switch. But public access was never restored.
In the meeting, tempers rose – leading to a pointed discussion between County Judge Curtis Parrish and Jason Corley, commissioner for Precinct 2. Other commissioners voiced frustration too.
Parrish asked Isaac Badu, the director of information technology services (IT), to come forward. Parrish clarified with Badu that the online access system can be turned on in a matter of seconds.
“Ten,” Badu said, meaning ten seconds.
Parrish and Badu said the portal remains shut down until the district attorney, Sunshine Stanek, allows it.
“So you’re only waiting for the district attorney to clear you to turn it on. Is that correct?’” Parrish asked Badu.
“Correct,” Badu answered.
“This is not an IT problem. This is a district attorney’s problem. Mr. Badu is ready to turn on the portal,” Parrish said.
However, Stanek and her civil division chief, Neal Burt, had issues with that the day after the meeting.
Stanek and Burt told LubbockLights.com they disagreed with Pinion – saying an online portal is not necessarily required. But they also said they are not the reason online access remains shut.
The county can restore online access as soon as the commissioners and various departments feel comfortable doing it, Stanek and Burt said.
“We don’t have any ultimate veto power,” Burt said.
Stanek also said District Clerk Sara Smith reached out by email right about the same time commissioners raised this issue. (As an aside, according to Pinion, Smith’s office has the same problem with public access.)
“We just had word yesterday. … She’s running tests right now on the portal,” Stanek said of Smith.
Public access? ‘Nonexistent’
The Monday meeting dealt with ordinary budget issues. Pinion asked for no increase in her budget – “bare necessities,” as one commissioner put it.
Commissioners thanked her for that. Corley asked about public access to records in her office.
“Nonexistent,” Pinion answered.
“We have no public access. Staff does. The public does not,” she said.
With more questioning, Pinion explained the public can come to the courthouse and ask her staff to find something. But there’s not even a computer terminal in her office for the public to look up cases.
Her staff has to do the research and then provide the record whether it’s criminal, civil lawsuits, probate, guardianships and the like. There are some records her office can put online such as land records, marriage licenses, assumed names and a few other things.
Some court records are picked up for public distribution by a website called research.txcourts.gov. Having signed up for the service, LubbockLights.com found it’s not complete – not even for recent records.
And Pinion said older records are completely missing.
“When someone is doing a background check on somebody, say for childcare, you don’t want to know that they’ve been clean for five years. You want to know that they’ve been clean all the way back,” Pinion said.
Rackler said, “I probably have four people a month that ask me why they don’t have public access to things in Lubbock County that other counties have access to.”
Cary Shaw, newly elected commissioner for Precinct 3, said he asked about this issue with the county’s IT department.
“It’s never a straight answer,” Shaw said.
Tempers got warm
Parrish called on Badu after Pinion was done and left. Parrish started by asking how long it takes to turn on public access.
Parrish asked, “Say it again. Who are we waiting on?”
Badu answered, “The district attorney. That’s who instructed us to turn it off.”
Burt, reacting to the meeting, said, “There was a time when we pulled the portal” because of the private data issue in 2021.
“We had worked through those issues as well as we could, and I honestly believe that we have done that,” Burt said.
The public access portal can come back, he said. But that was the day after the meeting, not when commissioners were voicing frustration.
Corley asked in the meeting, “So if we’re in violation of the law, is IT responsible for the violation or the DA’s office?”
Badu answered, “I cannot answer that question. I don’t know the law.”
Parrish again pointed out Badu only did what Stanek’s office told him to do.
Turning his attention to Corley, Parrish said, “I’ve told her that. And we’ve told you that. … We said this is not IT’s fault that you just can’t hear that for some reason.”
Corley interrupted, “No, I want it corrected. I want it fixed. How long are we going to go on with this?”
Parrish said, “You had the district attorney here just 35 minutes ago.”
Stanek presented her proposed budget earlier in that same meeting. The public records issue did not come up.
Parrish asked Corley, “Did you ask her about that?”
“No, I was not aware that she was [the holdup],” Corley started to answer before Parrish interrupted.
“You are aware! We’ve been talking about this for how many years now? Since 2020,” Parrish said.
After some further back and forth, Parrish said, “We did not break one law! Not one law was broken. … You said five years ago, we’re going to get sued.”
Corley said, “Not the first thing we did wrong, we didn’t get sued for.”
Auditor Kathy Williams interrupted the discussion and said, “Gentlemen, I think you’ve made your point. We are in budget hearings.”
Commissioners moved to the next budget presentation.
Underlying problem fixed two years ago
The problem with private information (expunged court records that cannot be disclosed publicly) was fixed two years ago, Burt said. He also said there were meetings with some of the bigger players in this decision including a meeting several months ago in Parrish’s office.
“That’s where we left it – that each of the individual departments would be moving forward with what it would take to open the portal with no veto from our office,” Burt said.
Stanek said, “I have not heard from Isaac Badu in months. … It’s not like he’s calling me every day saying, ‘Can we open the portal?’ Nor is he contacting our civil division.”
LubbockLights.com also asked Stanek about having trouble getting criminal records even when going to the courthouse in person, not just online. In one case, LubbockLights.com started with the clerk’s office and was referred to Stanek’s office only to be referred right back to the clerk.
“That should never happen,” Stanek said.
Stanek also said procedures in her office have improved since then.
