According to i45NOW, the City of League City is withholding police records related to a January 2025 call for service involving Councilman Justin Hicks. The records requested—including basic police report summaries ("top sheets"), dispatch logs, and radio/911 call recordings—are typically subject to disclosure. However, the City Attorney has decided to delay their release until the Texas Attorney General (AG) determines what, if anything, may be withheld.

On February 3, 2025, the City Attorney's office released a report outlining their procedures and justifying the decision. In response, i45NOW published an analysis arguing that withholding fundamental details—such as the time of the call, names of responding officers, call location, nature of the call, and call duration—violates the Texas Public Information Act.

The City maintains that it has previously sought AG opinions on similar records and that Councilman Hicks was treated no differently than any other person. However, Mayor Long acknowledged that Hicks received an advance copy of the AG request letter and contacted the City Attorney’s office twice—an action he described as “certainly unusual treatment.”

We submitted a Public Information Request (PIR) for all similar PIRs over the past 12 months, including their status and outcomes. The City provided an Excel spreadsheet showing that League City Police received 615 PIRs during this period. Of those, 8 are pending AG review, 87 were released in full, 357 were redacted before release, and 5 were withheld entirely. We have requested copies of the pending and withheld PIRs and will share them once available.

Click the link below to review the PIRs submitted by i45NOW, the City’s letter to the AG, the Excel spreadsheet of police PIRs from the past year, and the City’s report justifying its actions.

Chapter 145 of the Texas Local Government Code requires that cities with  populations over 100,000 must have their municipal officers (mayor, a member of the governing body, the municipal attorney, or the city manager of a municipality) and candidates for a municipal office file with the city clerk or secretary a financial statement annually.  These personal financial statements are required to be considered public records.  Click the link below to access the Personal Financial Statements for all filed candidates for League City Council positions up for election in November 2024.  The PFS for Chadwell, Crews, and Hicks are the same ones that were previously reported here.

On June 5, a League City resident sent an email with a concern about the book Big Wig by Johnathan Hillman in the Helen Hall Library.  She was directed to submit a Request for Reconsideration form which she did on June 26, 2024.  This Request for Reconsideration was reviewed by the League City Community Standards Review Committee on July 31st where the decision was made to relocate the book to a high shelf and require a parent to check out the book.  The vote was 1:1, with the CSRC Chair Todd Kinsey casting the tie-breaking vote.  The complainant claimed that the book contained material that is harmful to children, obscene, or sexually explicit.  During the CSRC meeting, all members agreed that there was nothing in the book that met any legal definitions for being harmful to children, obscene, or sexually explicit.  Instead, one member claimed that "hidden messages" including pictures of rabbits (alleged to be a symbol of homosexuality) were within the text and made it unsuitable for children.  She went on further to say it is the job of the CSRC to protect children from the "wrong thoughts."  You can read the original email complaint as well as the Request for Reconsideration by clicking the button below.  League City has redacted the images from the book, but we will be requesting an opportunity to make copies of what was submitted and will share once we have it.

There appears to be a dispute brewing between the City of League City and the Christina Sullivan Foundation (CSF). The CSF seems to be unhappy that the Project Rio (formerly the League City Epicenter) developers (River Caddis) no longer are interested in including the CSF Sports Center & Research Institute as part of the redevelopment of that property. The CSF has been emailing City staff requesting reimbursement in the amount of $36,325 for a market analysis that was developed and provided to River Caddis, the developer of the project. Through PIRs, we have received copies of emails between the CSF and the City from January 2023 through April 2024, and they are included in the repository linked in the button below. The full files received by the City are included, as well as potentially interesting excerpts that have been pulled from the original files.

So far the City of League City appears to be holding firm that they are not responsible for paying the CSF back for these fees. Do you think the City owes the CSF this money? The City didn't request the market study be performed (the CSF claims that it was requested by River Caddis). The CSF is citing a pre-development agreement as the reason why the City of League City should pay this invoice. However, the Christina Sullivan Foundation is not a party to the pre-development agreement (copies of which are included in the below repository). There does not appear to be any legal agreement between the City of League City and the CSF that obligates the City to reimburse the CSF for these monies (and the emails from the City show them requesting such documentation from the CSF). Should City of League City taxpayers be on the hook because the CSF made a business decision and invested their funds in a project that at the end of the day did not come to fruition?

Chapter 145 of the Texas Local Government Code requires that cities with  populations over 100,000 must have their municipal officers (mayor, a member of the governing body, the municipal attorney, or the city manager of a municipality) and candidates for a municipal office file with the city clerk or secretary a financial statement annually.  These personal financial statements are required to be considered public records.  Click the link below to access the Personal Financial Statements due April 30, 2024 (covering  calendar year 2022) for the Mayor and City Council members of League City.  ***UPDATED: As of 07/01/2024, all of the financial statements are now available***

In September 2023, several requests for reconsideration of books located in the Helen Hall Library were received by the City of League City in accordance with city ordinance number 2023-03. We requested copies of emails received related to the requests from reconsideration/complaints of library materials, as well as copies of any files submitted as part of these complaints on January 22, 2024. The City replied on February 2, 2024 stating that these materials could not be released citing several justifications including that these might be considered "library circulation records," that they might contain "potential obscene material," or that it would disclose "potential copyrighted information". The Texas Attorney General replied on April 10 rejecting all claims to prevent review and release of these records exception stipulating that potential copyrighted information may be reviewed and copied by the requestor, but not provided directly by the city as  copy.  We are sharing most of the released records provided in this request, including the version that does not have the photos from the books redacted. It is our opinion that the release of these materials is of a limited, non-commercial nature with a focus on criticism/news reporting and meets the definition of Fair Use. Also included are communications between the submitter of these requests and city staff related to the reconsideration request submission process.

Chapter 145 of the Texas Local Government Code requires that cities with  populations over 100,000 must have candidates for a municipal office file with the city clerk or secretary a financial statement annually.  These personal financial statements are required to be considered public records.  Click the link below to access the Personal Financial Statements for the five declared candidates in the Special Election.  These records were originally requested from the city on January 5th; on January 23, 2024 the City notified us that they were withholding the records subject to an Attorney General decision due to claims of "confidential information."  Due to a  Attorney General decision on another PIR that stated that no information in these financial statements could be withheld, the City released the records on March 8, 2024. Out of respect to the family members of the candidates, we have decided to redact their names and other potentially sensitive information not particularly relevant to the candidates. You may, of course, request the full un-redacted documents from the City.

On December 14, 2023, the City Librarian, Teresa Potter, was terminated from League City employment.  Her high-profile firing from the library occurred after the conclusion of a hectic year following controversial decisions by League City Council to enact a library materials reconsideration ordinance as well as restrict access to library facilities by certain groups.  Some might call this firing retaliatory for Teresa standing up for what is right.  The City frames the argument as one where they had an insubordinate employee.  Teresa's performance evaluation sure does not read like the performance evaluation of an employee who deserved to be fired.

Annually, city council performs an evaluation of their staff direct reports (City Secretary, Manager, Attorney, and Auditor).  Below are the performance evaluations conducted in January 2023 covering calendar year 2023 performance.  The performance evaluation for Doan Nghiem was conducted on the evening of his termination. It is interesting to note that Andy Mann did not take the time to evaluate the City Attorney.

During the November 2023 meeting, City Council voted 4 to 3 to terminate the employment of the City Attorney.  Contained below is the most recent employment contract for the City Attorney.  Mr. Doan was paid a salary of $163,000.  As his termination does not appear to be "For Cause," this means that Mr. Doan is due a pay-out of 3/4 of his annual salary within 30 days ($122,250.00).  

Chapter 145 of the Texas Local Government Code requires that cities with  populations over 100,000 must have their municipal officers (mayor, a member of the governing body, the municipal attorney, or the city manager of a municipality) and candidates for a municipal office file with the city clerk or secretary a financial statement annually.  These personal financial statements are required to be considered public records.  Click the link below to access the Personal Financial Statements (covering  calendar year 2022) for the Mayor and City Council members of League City.  

2023 saw several ethics complaints filed between Councilmen Tom Crews & Justin Hicks.  Contained below are copies of the various ethics complaints as well as supporting documentation from both sides as provided through PIRs.

Annually, city council performs an evaluation of their staff direct reports (City Secretary, Manager, Attorney, and Auditor).  Below are the performance evaluations conducted in January 2023 covering calendar year 2022 performance.

Contained below are the applications submitted for individuals being considered for a position on the League City Community Standards Review Committee.  Also responsive to this PIR was an email received by Councilman Hicks from a former member of the Board of Trustees.

The below document includes an email exchange between former Police Chief Ratliff and Councilman Hicks related to resident concerns about the LCPD diversity program and board.