City Attorney, City Manager Insist They're Not Hiding Trinity Project Docs From Us

Dallas City Attorney Tom Perkins

​Just spent 20 minutes getting an earful from Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm and City Attorney Tom Perkins, who insisted, over and over, that the city's lawsuit over those Trinity River records has nothing whatsoever to do with our request to see "all the individual invoices paid in relation to the bonds sold for improvement of the Trinity River corridor in the 1998, 2003 and 2006 bond programs," per Sam's open-records request filed way the hell back on February 1.

Instead, Perkins said, the city filed suit to stop the release of "names of Department of Defense personnel and a couple of emails the [U.S. Army] Corps [of Engineers] has asked us not to release. The Corps has asked us to hold them because of national security."

Well, OK. We appreciate the clarification. But, look, Tom, it's not like the city's suit -- which was filed in Travis County earlier this month, after the Texas Attorney General's Office told the city what it could and couldn't release -- is specific. Far from it. Read it for yourself after the jump. Shouldn't take long. It's barely three pages.

And besides, the Texas AG already told the city: That Corps stuff you're saying is exempted from release? Sure is. As in: "Based on the city's representations and our review, the city must withhold the information we have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with federal law."

Look, we just want to know how the city's spent our money. And on what. And what was -- and is -- being said about the status of the Trinity River Corridor Project within the confines of Dallas City Hall.

"You're gonna get what the AG said to release," Perkins insists, adding that at this very moment, "binders' worth of stuff is being compiled for release."

Yeah, but for release when? "In three to five days we'll have it compiled in one place," Suhm says, at which point we'll get our invite to begin thumbing through the docs. Shouldn't take long -- she says it's only 8,800 pages. Give or take. CityofDallasVTexasAG