5. Getting records and asking questions
15 min. Public information requests, and the honest limits of removal from office.
5.1 A records request costs a stamp
A public information request is the cheapest tool in this training. It creates a written record a governmental body has to respond to. A pattern documented in an agency's own records is the only durable foundation for anything that follows. It also keeps you out of trouble, because claims built on rumour collapse and claims built on the agency's own documents do not.
5.2 How to write one they answer
Name the records, not the topic. Ask for invoices and emails, not information about. Give a date range, because open-ended requests invite large cost estimates and long delays. Name the custodian if you know it. Ask for electronic copies. Keep a copy of what you sent and the date.
5.3 Know which door you are at
Party officers, party meetings, conventions, and party money go to party forums: the CEC, the rules, the SREC. County offices, school districts, cities, public money, and public records go to records requests and, if it goes that far, the courts. Confusing the two is the most common failure in local politics and it wastes months.
5.4 Removal is real, and narrow
Chapter 87 reaches a closed list of county officers plus ISD trustees. Not city officials, not state officials. Grounds are incompetency, official misconduct, or intoxication, and an officer cannot be removed for an act committed before election. Any resident of six months who is not under indictment may file, and at least one filer must swear to it.
5.5 The parts people do not tell you
The judge may refuse to order citation, in which case the petition is dismissed at your cost with no appeal and no writ of error. If it proceeds, you post security for costs, and removal requires a trial by jury. Chapter 87 was materially amended in 2025, so any form or checklist written before mid-2025 is wrong about who the petition is addressed to, who assigns the judge, and who prosecutes.
GET A LAWYER FIRST. That is not a disclaimer, it is the actual advice.
5.6 A verification habit worth stealing
While preparing this training the state statutes website displayed the pre-2025 version of several Chapter 87 sections, including subsections that had been repealed. The enrolled bill text was correct and the displayed statute was not. So read the Amended by history at the end of any section, and check the enrolled text of any recent amending bill before you rely on displayed language. Two minutes, and it is the difference between being right and being confidently wrong.
Your action this week
File one public information request
It costs a stamp and creates a record the agency has to answer. A pattern in an agency's own records is the only durable foundation for anything that follows.