Investigative firm’s lawsuit claims San Benito withholding public records

SAN BENITO — An investigative firm is suing San Benito and its Economic Development Corporation, claiming officials are withholding public records.

In the lawsuit filed in Cameron County’s 138th state District Court, Wayne Dolcefino is claiming the city, the EDC and former EDC board member Jose Morales are withholding information requested under the Texas Public Information Act.

For about a year, Dolcefino, owner of Houston-based Dolcefino Communications and Dolcefino Media, has been investigating San Benito officials.

Meanwhile, Dolcefino, a former Houston TV investigative reporter, has declined to disclose who is paying him to conduct the investigation.

On Wednesday, City Manager Fred Sandoval said he was preparing a response, while Morales did not respond to a message requesting comment.

In the lawsuit seeking $100,000 in “relief,” Dolcefino claims the city and EDC have failed to respond to more than 150 requests for public records including invoices or receipts stemming from restaurants and hotel stays.

“The city and the EDC have produced information responsive to some of the requests, sought permission from the Office of the Attorney General to withhold information responsive to some of the requests and wholly failed to respond to other requests,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also claims Morales and EDC officials are withholding Morales’ EDC phone records.

The defendants “sought permission from the Office of the Attorney General to withhold the requested information, claiming that as Morales was an appointed/volunteer member of the board of directors for the San Benito EDC and was not issued/did not possess a municipal mobile phone, he did not have to provide the information.”

In the lawsuit, Dolcefino claims the Attorney General’s Office “held that requested information was within the scope of the Act.”

“Despite being ordered by the Office of the Attorney General to release the information, the defendants have failed to do so,” the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit also argues officials are withholding information surrounding a project aimed at turning the San Benito Fairgrounds into a music venue, including its revenues and expenditures, its feasibility study and officials’ emails, along with information stemming from city music festivals’ revenues and expenditures including last month’s Hog Waddle Concert and Cookoff.

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