What the Network is

The Network is consent infrastructure. Many Texans want to help hold local government accountable but don’t have the time, expertise, or coordination to draft public information requests, track statutory clocks, file Attorney General complaints, follow board meetings, and get documented findings in front of the people who can act on them. LION does that work. Members give LION the standing to do it on their behalf.

Under the Texas Public Information Act, each member is a distinct §552.001 requester. That distinction matters: it defeats §552.275’s 36-hour personnel-time cap (per requester, not per organization) and §552.232’s repetitive-request aggregation (also per requester). When LION files coordinated, narrowly-scoped requests across a network of consenting members, each request stands on its own statutory footing — and a governmental body cannot lawfully aggregate them without running into §552.222(a), which bars inquiries into requester identity.

LION drafts every request, files it from a LION-controlled email account under the member’s pseudonym, tracks the clock, and follows up. Members opt in to the work they want to support and check in occasionally. That’s it. The more Texans who join, the more public bodies the Network can credibly audit. Membership is the multiplier.

Within the law

The Texas Public Information Act provides the framework that supports the Network’s structure. Every member has their own legal right; the Network is the coordinating framework through which each member exercises it.

Every person’s individual right

Tex. Gov’t Code §552.001(a):

“Each person is entitled, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, at all times to complete information about the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees.”

§552.001(b) further provides that the chapter “shall be liberally construed in favor of granting a request for information.”

Agent filing on behalf of a member

Tex. Gov’t Code §552.223 (Uniform Treatment of Requestors) expressly contemplates requests made by one person on behalf of another:

“The officer for public information or the officer’s agent shall treat all requests for information uniformly without regard to the position or occupation of the requestor, the person on whose behalf the request is made, or the status of the individual as a member of the media.”

Identity protection

Tex. Gov’t Code §552.222(a) limits any inquiry into a requester’s identity to what’s necessary to establish proper identification — meaning enough to deliver responsive records. Disclosure of a requester’s legal name to the governmental body is not required. The Texas Attorney General has formally opined that “the identity of the requestor is generally not a factor to be considered when a governmental body receives an open record request” (AG Open Records Letter OR2005-04224).

Public-interest fee waiver

Tex. Gov’t Code §552.267(a):

“A governmental body shall provide a copy of public information without charge or at a reduced charge if the governmental body determines that waiver or reduction of the charge is in the public interest because providing the copy of the information primarily benefits the general public.”

LION’s accountability work — auditing local government and publishing fact-based findings for public benefit — falls squarely within this provision. Fees that disregard the public-interest waiver are challengeable on that basis.

Together these provisions establish the Network’s legal foundation. Each member has their own §552.001 right to public information. LION acts on a member’s behalf under §552.223. Identity is protected under §552.222(a). And under §552.267, work that informs the general public makes fee waivers and reductions appropriate.

Read the full chapter at the Texas Constitution and Statutes website.