{"id":243367,"date":"2026-04-10T09:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/243367\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:20:08","slug":"zealous-requestor-strains-bexars-public-records-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/243367\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Zealous requestor’ strains Bexar’s public records system"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Bexar County employee Joseph Brantley at his home in Universal City in November.\u00a0Brantley has flooded Bexar County with records requests. The county needs to honor them.<\/p>\n

Clint Datchuk<\/p>\n

What do you do\u00a0with a problem like Joseph Brantley?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The short answer is\u00a0Bexar County should honor his public records requests.<\/p>\n

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Since July,\u00a0Brantley has overwhelmed Bexar County with about 1,000 public records requests<\/a>, showing how one person can clog a system meant to serve all.<\/p>\n

As Express-News reporter Saul Pink recently outlined, the county has declared Brantley a \u201czealous requestor,\u201d a label that allows the\u00a0county to charge for the time it takes to process such requests.<\/p>\n

The \u201czealous requestor\u201d designation applies to anyone who submits more than 15 open records requests in a month, or 36 such requests in a year. Once staff spend 36 hours processing these requests, with no more than 15 hours in a month, the county can begin charging. As Pink reported, Brantley is the only person to receive such a designation.<\/p>\n

To get around these charges and limits,\u00a0Brantley has at times relied on the alias \u201cAudie Kyle\u201d to file requests and argued he is a journalist, which would make him exempt from the zealous requestor law.<\/p>\n

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It hasn\u2019t worked. One request for budget documents filed by \u201cAudie Kyle\u201d resulted in an estimated cost of $15,000. All of this\u00a0\u2014 the use of an alias, the overburdensome policy, the dollar amount\u00a0\u2014 is absurd.<\/p>\n

Public records belong to all, and the\u00a0county should\u00a0honor Brantley\u2019s (many) requests. His motivations for filing these requests as a former county employee and the related debate over whether he qualifies as a journalist through his Facebook page, Citizen Veteran Journalists of Bexar County,<\/a> are beside the point. So is what he writes on his Facebook page.<\/p>\n

He is a member of the public. He has filed (many) public records requests. Those requests should be processed and honored. The records belong to the public, not the county.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is Brantley a journalist?<\/p>\n

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This question matters in Brantley\u2019s fight with county officials over the costs associated with his (many) public records requests. It does not matter to us. As Chip Stewart, a media law attorney and professor at Texas Christian University, told Pink: \u201cSomebody who is doing journalism activities is a journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filing records requests is certainly part of producing journalism. So, too, is reporting, writing, editing, copy editing, acting in an honest manner and fact-checking. Where Brantley fits in that balance is open to debate\u00a0\u2014 Where does podcaster Joe Rogan fit in that media landscape? \u2014 but we should all be uncomfortable with the government deciding who qualifies as a journalist.<\/p>\n

Besides, journalists don\u2019t have more of a right to public records than members of the public.<\/p>\n

While we believe\u00a0Brantley\u2019s requests should be processed with reasonable speed and minimum cost\u00a0\u2014 $15,000 is an obvious barrier to public disclosure\u00a0\u2014\u00a0that does not mean we are blind to the broader issues at play.<\/p>\n

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In filing so many requests in such a short period of time, Brantley is stressing the system to the breaking point. The public records system is about serving everyone, not just one person. Filing so many requests has the potential to delay records requests from other people and puts a tremendous\u00a0 strain on staff. It could result in less disclosure \u2014 because he has clogged the public records pipes, so to speak.<\/p>\n

So, while the county has a responsibility to honor these requests\u00a0\u2014 because it is honoring the public\u00a0\u2014 let\u2019s not confuse Brantley as a champion of the public\u2019s right to know. He is a former county employee who has taken a system meant to serve the public good and used it for selfish reasons.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the public records he has requested belong to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Get the latest influential editorials, hard-hitting commentaries and thought-provoking opinions from the Alamo City in your inbox.\u00a0Click here to sign up<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Bexar County employee Joseph Brantley at his home in Universal City in November.\u00a0Brantley has flooded Bexar County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93036,93037,93039,86012,88930,93038,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-243367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-edcounty","tag-edfoia","tag-edjosephbrantley","tag-edlocal","tag-edstaff","tag-edtransparency","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}