PM5K
07-20-2010, 11:36 PM
SAN ANTONIO -- Responding to questions concerning his correspondence with toll road opponent Terri Hall, County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson insists that his personal e-mail account is off limits.
The commissioner, who also serves as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, opposes toll roads. But he bristles at the suggestion that he has acted on Hall's behalf.
"I'm damn sure not going to be owned by anybody," Adkisson said.
His critics said recently released county e-mail correspondence between the two suggests otherwise.
"That's (the criticism) raised by the establishment that doesn't want to hear a divergent voice and they actually (have) a divergent voice with her," Adkisson said. "I admire her courage."
The commissioner insisted that that he and Hall, whose tenacity he said he admires, do not conduct county business on his personal account. To release e-mail from his personal account would be in violation of his constitutional rights, according to Adkisson. And it would be cumbersome.
"Do you want your elected officials to go through endless inquiries into every facet of what they're doing to the point that they cannot even do what they were elected to do?" Adkisson said.
Adkisson is taking the Texas Attorney General to court on the matter. He has filed suit in district court after the Attorney General issued a directive ordering him to turn over MPO-related e-mails to and from Hall from his personal account.
"The Attorney General's opinion is not the law," he said. "It is an opinion as to the law. The law will be decreed by the courts."s
LINK (http://www.ksat.com/news/24329281/detail.html)
The commissioner, who also serves as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, opposes toll roads. But he bristles at the suggestion that he has acted on Hall's behalf.
"I'm damn sure not going to be owned by anybody," Adkisson said.
His critics said recently released county e-mail correspondence between the two suggests otherwise.
"That's (the criticism) raised by the establishment that doesn't want to hear a divergent voice and they actually (have) a divergent voice with her," Adkisson said. "I admire her courage."
The commissioner insisted that that he and Hall, whose tenacity he said he admires, do not conduct county business on his personal account. To release e-mail from his personal account would be in violation of his constitutional rights, according to Adkisson. And it would be cumbersome.
"Do you want your elected officials to go through endless inquiries into every facet of what they're doing to the point that they cannot even do what they were elected to do?" Adkisson said.
Adkisson is taking the Texas Attorney General to court on the matter. He has filed suit in district court after the Attorney General issued a directive ordering him to turn over MPO-related e-mails to and from Hall from his personal account.
"The Attorney General's opinion is not the law," he said. "It is an opinion as to the law. The law will be decreed by the courts."s
LINK (http://www.ksat.com/news/24329281/detail.html)