JXM MA-X 

ATTORNEY G,CNERAL 

February 15, 1990 

Hon. James Warren Smith, Jr. 

Frio County Attorney 

P. 0. Box v 

Pearsall, Texas 78061-1138 

Opinion No. JR-1143 

Re: Whether a county clerk 

must make available to the 

public tapes of commissioners 

court meetings (RQ-1835) 

Dear Mr. Smith: 

In your letter requesting an opinion you state the 

following facts: 

1. The county clerk makes audio tape 

recordings of commissioners court 

meetings. 

2. The county clerk maintains that these tape 

recordings are her "private notes" and are 

thus her private property. 

3. The county clerk uses. these tape 

recordings to aid her in preparing the 

minutes of the commissioners court. 

4. The commissioners court does not require 

the clerk to tape record either public or 

executive sessions of the court. 

you ask whether such tape recordings must be made 

available to the general public. 

The county clerk is the px pfficig clerk of the 

commissioners court and, as such, is required "to record in 

suitable books the proceedings of each term of the court." 

Local Gov't Code 5 81.003(b). 

Section 3(a) of the Open Records Act, article 6252-17a, 

V.T.C.S., provides: 

All information collected, assembled, or 

maintained by or for governmental bodies, 

ex c e D t in th oe ssituations where‘ t he 

p. 6040 
Honorable James Warren Smith, Jr. - Page 2 (JM-1143) 

governmental bodv dons not have either a 

iaht of access to or owner hiD of th 

&iggi& 

in connection 

official business is public information 

[unless within a specified exception]. 

iEmphasis added.) 

The underlined.language in the above-quoted provision 

was added to the statute in 1989. Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 

1248, 5 9, at 5023. It exempts materials from coverage by 

the Open Records Act in situations where materials are 

produced for a governmental body but the governmental body 

has neither ownership in nor a right of access to the 

materials. This exemption is a codification of principles 

enunciated in previous open records decisions. See. e.o., 

Open Records Decision No. 445 (1986). 

You do not state whether the tapes or the tape recorder 

are county property or the personal property of the county 

clerk. However, assuming that they are the personal 

property of the county clerk, she certainly has access to 

them in her official capacity as clerk of the commissioners 

court. 

In Open Records Decision No. 225 (1979), the attorney 

general considered whether handwritten notes of meetings 

made by the secretary of a governmental body were subject to 

the Open Records Act. In' that decision, as here, the 

materials in question were not of the type of personal notes 

that have been held to be exempt frbm disclosure. The tape 

recordings in question here are used by the county clerk in 

the performance of her duties as clerk of the commissioners 

court. The analysis in Open Records Decision No. 225 and 

the authorities cited therein are apposite here. 

Moreover, the minutes of a commissioners court meeting, 

being the medium through which the court speaks and acts, is 

exactly the kind of record the Open Records Act is intended 

to make available so that citizens may have "full and 

complete information regarding the official acts of 

those who represent them." V.;l.C.S. art. 6252-17a, § 1; 

Open Records Decision No. 60 (1974). Tape recordings 

produced during a meeting of a governmental body as an aid 

in the preparation of accurate minutes have been expressly 

found to be subject to the provisions of the Open Records 

Act. Open Records Decision No. 32 (1974). 

Therefore, audio tape recordings of commissioners court 

meetings that are made by the county clerk as an aid in the 

p. 6041 
Honorable James Warren Smith, Jr. - Page 3 (JM-1143) 

h 

preparation of minutes are subject to the provisions of' the 

Open Records Act. The fact, taken alone, that such 

recordings may be the personal property of the county clerk 

does not except them from the Open Records Act. 

SUMMARY 

Audio tape recordings of commissioners 

court meetings that are made by the county 

clerk as an aid in the preparation of minutes 

are subject to the provisions of the Open 

Records Act. The fact that such recordings 

may be the personal property of the county 

clerk does not except them from the Open 

Records Act. 

;-. 

JIM MATTOX - 

Attorney General of Texas 

MARY KELLER 

First Assistant Attorney General 

JUDGE ZOWE STEANLEY 

Special Assistant Attorney General 

RENEA HICKS 

Special Assistant Attorney General 

RICK GILPIN 

Chairman, Opinion Committee 

Prepared by John Steiner 

Assistant Attorney General 

P 

p. 6042