AG affirms release of Lake Gladewater dam assessment

The City of Gladewater stalled the release of its 2025 dam assessment earlier this Spring but ultimately did not justify withholding the engineer’s report in whole or in part.
In response to a Gladewater Mirror documents request in mid-February, the city paid its legal counsel to challenge whether the document was a public record. While that request for a ruling from the Texas Attorney General’s Office proceeded through the system, City Hall released the document in its entirety March 13, a delay of about three weeks.
The state’s Open Records Division issued its ruling on the request May 18. In response to Gladewater City Attorney Ronald Stutes, Ashtyn Gillie (an assistant attorney general) pushed back on one of the city’s arguments and indicated the city did not identify any “particular vulnerabilities of the city’s critical infrastructure” to withhold from the public.
“To the extent the city does not make such a determination, the information at issue is not confidential” and may not be withheld,” Gillie wrote. “The city must release the remaining information.”
The Office of the Attorney General noted the city may not withhold the report as “information considered to be confidential by law” in conjunction with ‘executive session’ provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
On April 16, the City of Gladewater paid $607.50 in “general representation legal fees,” the first invoice since Feb. 10. Another request for ruling was submitted during the same period (see separate story in this issue).
The dam assessment was included in the council packet for the city’s March 19 council meeting. It has not yet been uploaded to the online resource library at cityofgladewater.com/dam