DID THE UH REGENTS MEETING that authorized Chancellor Renu Khator to pursue the purchase of Rice station KTRU (in a divided vote) violate state law?
Texas Watchdog‘s Steve Miller reports that the meeting probably violated the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of the law:
[T]he agenda item for Tuesday’s public meeting at which the U of H purchase was approved may have been lacking in full disclosure, said Joe Larsen, a lawyer with the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
[snip]
“The agenda did not make reference to the sale of KTRU, so the question becomes, how high is the expected level of public interest?” Larsen said. He said one explanation might be that there was more than one radio station under consideration for purchase, but “the best I can say is, if UH knew at the time the target was KTRU, that this fact should have been included in the agenda because they should have anticipated a high level of public interest.”
It is fairly obvious from different reports that Rice (a private university), wanted details of this deal kept quiet. Unfortunately, the University of Houston (a public university) decided to help out as much as it could, possibly violating state law, and with the assistance of the area’s newspaper of record. The vote was close, so interested citizens/taxpayers might well have influenced the decision with a little more notice and information. Shame on UH and the Houston Chronicle for withholding both.
