Court: Judge erred in blocking city from posting hearing video

A Texas appeals court on Thursday ordered a state district judge to rescind his temporary restraining order requiring the city of Houston to remove video from its website that depicted a public City Council committee hearing over a proposal to grant firefighters “pay parity” with police.

District Judge Kyle Carter should not have blocked the city from posting the video of the committee hearing because it is not clear the meeting constituted illegal electioneering, as the Houston firefighters union had alleged, the 14th Court of Appeals justices ruled.

That restraining order had expired last week anyway, said Cris Feldman, an attorney for the firefighters union, adding that the decision does not preclude a court from coming to the same conclusion that Carter did after further hearings in the case.

“We respect the appellate process and we look forward to the full factual development of this matter and holding the city accountable for illegally using public funds to campaign against the firefighters,” Feldman said.

Carter issued the temporary restraining order earlier this month on the presumption that there was a “substantial likelihood” the July 26 budget committee hearing constituted illegal electioneering under state law, the justices wrote, but they said the record did not support that conclusion. They ordered Carter to rescind his order, which already had been temporarily blocked pending the ruling released Thursday, and which was dated to expire Aug. 14.

The section of state law banning local governments from using public funds to advocate for or against ballot measures was not intended to restrain public discussion of such issues, the justices wrote Thursday.

“It was not unreasonable or unexpected that statements tending to indicate support for, or opposition to, the charter amendment might be voiced at the meeting,” the nine-page opinion states. “Public funds were not being used for political advertising by making the meeting video publicly available, even though an incidental effect of posting the video on the city’s website may be to re-publish statements supporting or opposing the charter amendment.”

Houston firefighters gathered tens of thousands of voter signatures and submitted the petition to put the parity question to voters a year ago, but had to sue the city to force it to count the petition. They won, and the petition was validated in May.

The firefighters sued again last month, arguing the committee hearing was a ploy to trash their idea. Amid early hearings in that case, the council voted to place the measure on the November ballot.

The item would grant firefighters the same pay as police officers of corresponding rank and seniority. Turner estimates the move would cost $98 million annually and has said he will hold town halls in each of the 11 council districts to discuss the issue.

“The city cannot pay more than it can afford,” Turner said in a statement. “Taxpayers have a right to that information and we’ll continue to enlighten them through various communications platforms.”