Denial of Meeting Minutes Records

I received an official response for meeting minutes of the TEAS, Inc board of directors meetings! See what they said and why it matters

EMS

6/1/20261 min read

I received the official denial of my public records request for the meeting minutes of TEAS, Inc. The response I got was interesting, to say the least.

It seems, in all of this, that any question they ever have regarding TEAS, they are directing it toward Franciscan's lawyer, as the TEAS, Inc non-profit has no financial activity itself, so how could it have a lawyer of its own, and according to Commissioner Murtaugh, TEAS, Inc has a lease agreement with Franciscan that encompasses everything that Franciscan does under the "TEAS" business name. Is Franciscan's lawyer answering questions for TEAS, Inc as TEAS, Inc's lawyer, or as Franciscan's lawyer? There's a conflict of interest there to be sure.

It seems that they just assert that all records are theirs, the county does no looking into it of their own, and they just blindly accept it.

The response is interesting in this case because:

  1. They gave no indication that they reviewed anything themselves

  2. They gave no indication that they looked through their legal agreement with TEAS, Inc and determined that they shouldn't have the records to be able to call them public records

  3. It admits in writing that Commissioner Murtaugh is in possession of said minutes as a "Director" of the board, but not as a representative of the County.

They simply asked Franciscan's lawyer what they should do.