{"id":265624,"date":"2026-04-25T07:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265624\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T07:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:54:19","slug":"overdriving-headlights-mobility-authority-deems-public-comments-on-mopac-expansion-confidential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265624\/","title":{"rendered":"Overdriving headlights: Mobility Authority deems public comments on MoPac expansion \u201cconfidential\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public comments on plans to widen Austin\u2019s MoPac Expressway<\/a> should not be publicly released, according to the local highway entity promoting that road expansion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority<\/a> argues that, for now, the public comments are \u201cconfidential by law\u201d and fall under protected, deliberative \u201cinteragency\u201d communications \u2014 a stance that public information experts say pushes government secrecy to Orwellian extremes by keeping the public\u2019s own input out of public view.<\/p>\n

\"\"John Bridges<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does seem silly to argue that \u2018public\u2019 comments are suddenly no longer public once submitted to the agency,\u201d John Bridges<\/a>, a journalism lecturer at the University of Texas<\/a> and former executive editor of the Austin American-Statesman<\/a> wrote Austin Free Press. \u201cThe agency certainly could make these comments available but is choosing not to. Indeed, it\u2019s spending public money to hire an outside lawyer to try to keep public comments from the very public that made them.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTRMA maintains that it will release the public comments at the appropriate time down the road: \u201cAt the conclusion of the public comment period, as is the typical and required practice, the Mobility Authority will review and respond to all submissions and publish for public access,\u201d CTRMA spokesperson Jori Liu wrote to Austin Free Press. \u201cThis practice follows (National Environmental Policy Act) and TxDOT requirements established to ensure fairness, transparency, and integrity in the decision-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Bill Bunch<\/p>\n

The dispute regarding public information began March 25, when Bill Bunch of the Save Our Springs Alliance requested that CTRMA turn over all comments submitted during the MoPac South public input process, including those sent by email, voicemail, online forms, and at an in-person meeting at Bowie High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just asking for what is clearly public information: public comments, filed by members of the public, in an official public comment process,\u201d Bunch said. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond absurd that their attorneys are arguing that these public comments are somehow internal information confidential to the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of releasing the information, CTRMA has sought an attorney general opinion to keep the public comments secret for now. The Austin Free Press also has requested the information from the mobility agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Brian O\u2019Reilly<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a> to the Texas Attorney General, who oversees the Texas Public Information Act, Troutman Pepper Locke<\/a> attorney Brian O\u2019Reilly<\/a> argued that CTRMA has a right to withhold the public comments until after:<\/p>\n

The public comment period on the MoPac project\u2019s draft Environmental Assessment ends on May 3,CTRMA issues its final Environmental Assessment; andTxDOT issues its final environmental finding on the project.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Reilly\u2019s letter cites two legal exceptions to public disclosure. The first of those (\u00a7552.101<\/a>) exempts information \u201cconsidered to be confidential by law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil the (Environmental Assessment) comment period closes, submissions received by the CTRMA and TxDOT are in-process working materials,\u201d O\u2019Reilly wrote.<\/p>\n

If \u201ccomment submissions are made public before the close of the comment period,\u201d he added, \u201coutside actors may selectively highlight, publicize, or organize campaigns around particular comments to pressure the CTRMA and TxDOT to assign those comments disproportionate weight. This can create an appearance, or reality, of undue influence on the CTRMA\u2019s decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTRMA\u2019s other argument cites an exception (\u00a7552.111<\/a>) that exempts from disclosure certain memos or letters that reveal an agency\u2019s deliberative process.<\/p>\n

The requested public-comment \u201crecords are preliminary drafts because they are being gathered and reviewed before TxDOT makes its environmental decision and before the (Environmental Assessment) is finalized,\u201d O\u2019Reilly wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf all comments submitted during an open, ongoing comment period must be disclosed on a rolling basis upon request, the CTRMA and TxDOT would lose the ability to complete their internal evaluation of the full body of comments before those comments are publicly circulated and potentially used to pressure or mischaracterize the agencies\u2019 deliberations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public information experts take issue with those arguments.<\/p>\n

\"\"Joseph R. Larsen<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen an argument like this\u2026 It\u2019s absurd,\u201d said Joseph R. Larsen<\/a>, an attorney with Houston-based firm Gregor, Wynne, Arney<\/a>. Withholding public comments \u201ccuts against the very idea of public involvement,\u201d said Larsen, who sits on the board of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas<\/a> along with Bridges. \u201cThe whole idea of transparency under the First Amendment is not only the right to speak, but it\u2019s the right to receive information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public comments \u201care generally not regarded as confidential under the \u2018agency memorandum\u2019 or \u2018deliberative process exception\u2019 of the Texas Public Information Act,\u201d Austin attorney\u00a0Bill Aleshire<\/a>\u00a0told Austin Free Press in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deliberative process privilege protects pre-decisional, deliberative communications within an agency, but public comments submitted from outside the agency do not fall within this narrow exception because they are not internal agency communications.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTRMA officials maintain their position is legal and protects the integrity of the public comment process.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nikelle Meade<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to ensure that everyone is heard regarding this project (and all of our projects), and we want each person to feel open and free to express exactly what they want to,\u201d CTRMA Vice Chair Nikelle Meade<\/a> wrote Austin Free Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want to create a situation where some members of the community either berate others or criticize their comments or where the comments made by others influence what a person may otherwise want to submit,\u201d added Meade, an attorney at Mayor Kirk Watson\u2019s former firm: Husch Blackwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Office of the Attorney General has 90 days to respond to CTRMA\u2019s request to withhold the public comments.<\/p>\n

Andrew Wheat is the Data, Information and Enterprise Editor of the Austin Free Press.<\/p>\n

Shelby Ligon is the editorial manager for Austin Free Press.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Bill Bunch sits on the advisory board of the Austin Free Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public comments on plans to widen Austin\u2019s MoPac Expressway should not be publicly released, according to the local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-265624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265624","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=265624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}