COVID in Denton County? Prove it.

11/05/2020 – Denton County, TX

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rules that Texas citizens have no right to independently review the RAW data of COVID-19 statistics collected by Denton County Health Services.

All COVID related reporting in Denton County is submitted to and compiled by the Denton County Health Services Department. In July, the Trophy Club Journal submitted an Open Records Request (ORR) for the specific statistics that related to the Town of Trophy Club, Texas.

At the time, Denton County was only providing statistics for the number of “Confirmed COVID Cases” in each Town or City in Denton County. The remainder of statistics, such as the number of tests performed, the number of cases recovered or active, the age & sex of infected individuals, were only provided at the broader County level. We felt that the citizens of Trophy Club have the right to know the full picture of COVID as it relates specifically to where they live.

Initially, Denton County rejected our request for information. The statement from Jennifer Rainey, Public Information Officer (PIO) at Denton County stated,

“Good morning Mr. Pipkins,

The Public Information Act does not require a governmental body to answer factual questions, conduct legal research, or create new information in responding to a request. See open Records Decision Nos. 563 at 8 (1990) 555 at 1-2 (1990) and OR-2014-7190. Furthermore, the Act does not require a governmental body to compile information or prepare new information. See Economic Opportunities Dev. Corp. v. Bustamante, 562 S.W.2d 266 (Tec. Civ. App.-San Antonio 1978, writ dism’d); Open Records Decision No. 542 at 3 (1986). However a governmental body must make a good faith effort to relate a request to information held by the governmental body.

With this said, Denton County Public Health has made data publicly available at DentonCounty.gov/COVIDstats and available for download at https://data-dentoncounty.hub.arcgis.com/pages/public-health. Deaths due to COVID-19 can be found on the press releases available on the “Press Releases” link on our COVID stats page.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our office. Otherwise, this concludes your request.

Best Regards,”

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To the Trophy Club Journal, this response is simply unacceptable. While Mrs. Rainey is correct in her quotation of Texas Law, at the Journal we fail to understand how this database search is any different than any other search for documents or email.

Not to be deterred, we revised our request. We figured that if they were unwilling to parse the data then we would just do it ourselves. So we asked for the complete RAW data for all of Denton County.

We replied by asking,

“… Please provide me with the complete RAW data file that you collect for the entire county of Denton in regards to all 5,544 COVID 19 positive cases. This is information you already possess and does not require compilation.

You may redact any personally identifiable information such as names, street addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, medical history etc. As you are familiar with the law you will understand that redaction can not be considered a barrier to the release of the information. Nor is it considered a compilation of information.

At a minimum, information that must remain shall include the City of Residency, test result, & birth date…. if such information is collected.”

Faced with a request they simply could not refute, the Health District put their team of lawyers together to draft a letter to Ken Paxton, Attorney General for the State of Texas, asking him to rule on whether or not they should be required to comply with our request. They cited a litany of Texas provisions (mostly regarding privacy concerns) all aimed at preventing the COVID data from being released.

As it turns out, Ken Paxton would rule against the Trophy Club Journal and in favor of the Denton County Health District. See below to view/download the letter we received from Ken Paxton’s office.

The gravity of this ruling should infuriate all Texans (and perhaps the nation).

In essence, the State of Texas (ie: Ken Paxton) has ruled that YOU, the citizens of Texas have no right to refute any claim made by health authorities. You have no right to review any data collected that relates to public health. You have no right to analyze the research on your own. YOU must shut up and accept whatever the unelected health department bureaucrats tells you.

Oversight of our government is a cornerstone of our democracy. Policies are created, laws are passed, based on the information that is being fed to citizens by the Denton County Health Services department. The citizens should have a right to verify that the information being fed to them by government sources is correct. Otherwise our government could manipulate the people to serve their own agenda. History is replete with examples of governments doing exactly that.

In an interesting twist, the Denton County Health Services COVID GIS website now shows the very information that we initially requested. Information that they stated did not exist. The only piece of information that is missing is the number of tests performed. However, in light of Ken Paxton’s response the issue has now shifted. The story is no longer about getting the information to the people, it is about a government that is rejecting oversight by the people.

The story is ongoing. The Trophy Club Journal has submitted another request to discover who is receiving COVID data from Denton County and what type of information is being transmitted. We expect that Denton County has no basis to deny our latest request. Once we have that information, we will take further action as necessary.

See the letter from Ken Paxton’s office below.