Creem, Cynthia (SEN)
To:John McMillan
Apr 1 at 11:14 PM
Dear Friend:
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. This is an automated response to acknowledge that your message was received.
Dear Friend:
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. This is an automated response to acknowledge that your message was received.
Please know that while my staff and I work hard to respond to all of the many issues and concerns that constituents bring to my attention, I sometimes receive hundreds of emails in a given week (in addition to calls and letters). While I do check my email on a regular basis, if this matter is urgent or time sensitive, please call my office directly at 617-722-1639. My Senate office mailing address is:
Senator Cynthia Stone Creem
Room 312A, State House
Boston, MA 02133
Thanks again for contacting me; it is a pleasure to serve you in the State Senate.
Sincerely,
Senator Cynthia Stone Creem
Room 312A, State House
Boston, MA 02133
Thanks again for contacting me; it is a pleasure to serve you in the State Senate.
Sincerely,
Cindy
Cynthia Stone Creem
State Senator – First Middlesex and Norfolk District
(Newton, Brookline and Wellesley precincts A,C,D,E,H)
_____
From: John McMillan
Cynthia Stone Creem
State Senator – First Middlesex and Norfolk District
(Newton, Brookline and Wellesley precincts A,C,D,E,H)
_____
From: John McMillan
To: karen.spilka@masenate.gov
Sent: Monday, April 1, 2019, 11:12:07 PM CDT
Subject: Fw: OAG: TDHCA may withhold from general public recent e-mails by TDHCA attys that refer to me
A respectful FYI on all of the following (below) to each of you four very influential officials of the Massachusetts Legislature governing body in Boston.
A(n) FYI as well to distinguished editors and reporters for "The Boston Globe" and "The Boston Herald", respectively.
Please do not hesitate to write to me or call me if any of you have any questions you would like to pose to me about any aspect of this.
Sincerely and Best Wishes,
from certified direct Pilgrim descendant and former Bay State-based professional reporter and professional copy editor John Kevin McMillan of Austin, Texas.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
My Blog: John Kevin McMillan: A 21st Century Conservative Left-Wing Agenda
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: John McMillan
To: james.frank@house.texas.gov
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2019, 5:41:21 PM CDT
Subject: Fw: OAG: TDHCA may withhold from general public recent e-mails by TDHCA attys that refer to me
A respectful FYI to each of you on the following,
from public-information requestor John Kevin McMillan of Austin, Texas.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295 (a landline phone inside my apt. that does not accept any texts for me)
Home address: Village Oaks Apartments (a NW Austin apartment complex reportedly owned and managed, respectively, by two separately-named for-profit corporations that are each headquartered at the very same street address in Newton, Mass.), 10926 Jollyville Road, Bldg. 16, Apt. 1609, Austin, TX 78759.
My E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
My Blog: http://www.johnkevinmcmillan.blogspot.com
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: John McMillan
To: Gina Hinojosa
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2019, 4:41:17 PM CDT
Subject: OAG: TDHCA may withhold from general public recent e-mails by TDHCA attys that refer to me
March 29, 2019
A respectful FYI to each of you public officials and other civic leaders on the following signed official ruling earlier this month by the Attorney General of Texas that officially authorizes the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) state agency to withhold from myself (the applicable public-information requestor) any and all e-mail communications
sent or received or written at any time since January 1, 2016, by staff members or attorneys of the TDHCA's Office of General Counsel---with e-mails written solely by myself, John Kevin McMillan of Austin, having been specifically excluded by me from the scope of my January 3, 2019-dated e-mail public-information request to the TDHCA----that each referred in any manner to myself.
I would like to respectfully point out that the TDHCA has never interviewed me in person or on the telephone, and has never invited me to visit that state agency's headquarters here in Austin, at any time in my entire life so far. I myself am not aware of any involvement ever at any time or on any occasion by the TDHCA in any aspect of my own housing conditions or living conditions in Austin, Texas.
I would welcome any reply note from any of you in regard to this legal matter and possible legal-liability issue currently facing the State Government of Texas under Governor Greg Abbott, and possibly also facing the Texas Legislature.
Sincerely and Best Wishes,
John Kevin McMillan.
Home address: Village Oaks Apartments, 10926 Jollyville Road, Apt. 1609, Austin, Texas 78759.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
Blog: http://www.johnkevinmcmillan.blogspot.com
________________________
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
KEN PAXTON
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
Post Office Box 12548, Austin, Texas 78711-2548
(512) 463-2100
www.texasattorneygeneral.gov
March 22, 2019
Mr. Jeffrey T. Pender
Deputy General Counsel
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs
P.O. Box 13941
Austin, Texas 78711-3941
OR2019-08088
Dear Mr. Pender:
You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 755605.
The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (the "department") received a (January 3, 2019-dated, e-mail public-information) request (final item, below) for all e-mails referring to the requestor (John Kevin McMillan of northwest Austin) sent or received by certain department officials (employed in that state agency's Office of General Counsel) during a specified (most recent three-year) time period, excluding e-mails written by the requestor (Mr. John Kevin McMillan of Austin). You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.107 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.
Section 552.107(1) of the Government Code protects information coming within the attorney-client privilege. When asserting the attorney-client privilege, a governmental body has the burden of providing the necessary facts to demonstrate the elements of the privilege in order to withhold the information at issue. See Open Records Decision No. 676 at 6-7 (2002). First, a governmental body must demonstrate the information constitutes or documents a communication. Id. at 7. Second, the communication must have been made "to facilitate the rendition of professional services" to the client governmental body.
TEX. R. EVID. 503(b)(1). The privilege does not apply when an attorney or representative is involved in some capacity other than that of providing or facilitating professional legal services to the client governmental body. In re Tex. Farmers Ins. Exch., 990 S.W.2d 337, 340 (Tex. App.---Texarkana 1999, orig. proceeding) (attorney-client privilege does not apply if attorney acting in capacity other than that of attorney). Governmental attorneys often act in capacities other than that of professional legal counsel, such as administrators, investigators, or managers. Thus, the mere fact that a communication involves an attorney for the government does not demonstrate this element. Third, the privilege applies only to communications between or among clients, client representatives, lawyers, and lawyer representatives. TEX. R. EVID. 503(b)(1)(A), (B), (C), (D), (E). Thus, a governmental body must inform this office of the identities and capacities of the individuals to whom each communication at issue has been made. Lastly, the attorney-client privilege applies only to a confidential communication, id. (503)(b)(1), meaning it was "not intended to be disclosed to third persons other than those: (A) to whom disclosure is made to further the rendition of professional legal services to the client; or (B) reasonably necessary to transmit the communication." Id. 503(a)(5). Whether a communication meets this definition depends on the intent of the parties involved at the time the information was communicated. See Osborne v. Johnson, 954 S.W.2d 180, 184 (Tex. App.---Waco 1997, orig. proceeding). Moreover, because the client may elect to waive the privilege at any time, a governmental body must explain the confidentiality of a communication has been maintained. Section 552.107(1) generally excepts an entire communication that is demonstrated to be protected by the attorney-client privilege unless otherwise waived by the governmental body. See Huie v. DeShazo, 922 S.W.2d 920, 923 (Tex. 1996) (privilege extends to entire communication, including facts contained therein).
You state the submitted information consists of communications between attorneys for the department and department employees that were made for the purpose of providing legal services to the department. You state the communications were intended to be confidential and have remained confidential. Based on your representations and our review, we find you have established the submitted information consists of privileged attorney-client communications. Therefore, the department may withhold the submitted information under section 552.107(1) of the Government Code.
This letter ruling is limited to the particular information at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other information or any other circumstances.
This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor (John Kevin McMillan of Austin). For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/open/orl_ruling_info.shtml, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act may be directed to the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.
Sincerely,
Kieran Hillis (signature)
Kieran Hillis
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division
KH/gw
Ref.: ID#755605
Enc. Submitted documents
c: Requestor (John Kevin McMillan, Village Oaks Apartments, 10926 Jollyville Road, Apt. 1609, Austin, TX 78759)
(w/o enclosures)
____________________________
From: John McMillan <mcmillanj@att.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2019 10:08 PM
Subject: 1-3-19 PIR re: TDHCA General Counsel and me
To: Open Records <open.records@mail.tdhca.state.tx.us>; Gina Hinojosa <gina.hinojosa@house.texas.gov>; Kirk Watson <kirk.watson@senate.texas.gov>; Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt <sarah.eckhardt@traviscountytx.gov>; Gerald Daugherty <gerald.daugherty@traviscountytx.gov>; Governor's Office of Texas Open Records Administrator <publicrecords@governor.state.tx.us>; Austin Mayor Steve Adler <steve.adler@austintexas.gov>; U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Devlpt (TX regional office) <tx_webmanager@hud.gov>
January 3, 2019
Dear Open Records Officials for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) state agency in Austin,
This is a Texas Open Records request in which I seek to obtain from you a copy of any and all e-mail letters referring at least once in any manner to myself, John Kevin McMillan of Austin, Texas, that were each received, sent, forwarded, or written at any time since January 1, 2016, by the chief attorney for your state agency or any staff member or attorney directly supervised by that chief attorney inside the Office of General Counsel for your state agency.
Excluded from the scope of this public-information request are any and all e-mail letters that were exclusively and solely written by myself.
My legal name is John Kevin McMillan. My date of birth is April 27, 1957. I am a native of Lincoln, Nebraska.
My personal e-mail address has remained the same throughout the entire three-year period applicable to this public-information request. That e-mail address for me is: mcmillanj@att.net .
My respective home addresses during the period ever since January 1, 2016, have been: 10926 Jollyville Road, Apt. 902, Austin, TX, 78759;
and, ever since early September 2017, 10926 Jollyville Road, Apt. 1609, Austin, TX 78759.
Thank you in advance for your helpful reply letter to me on this.
Sincerely and Best Wishes,
John Kevin McMillan,
Home address: 10926 Jollyville Road, Apt. 1609, Austin, TX 78759.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
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