Galveston council demands park board restore auditor access, votes to pursue Open Meetings Act complaints

On May 28 the Galveston City Council voted to send a formal communication to the Galveston Park Board demanding that the office of the city auditor be given read-only access to park board financial files and to authorize legal action over possible violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act and Texas Public Information Act.

Council members said the action followed months of delayed document production and a shift by the park board from in‑person read‑only access to selectively uploaded, annotated digital files. "They are telling us that it's 2,400 plus documents, and they've given us 1,200 documents that we're currently going through," City Auditor Glenn said during the council workshop. City Attorney Don Glowaski told council he had added a deadline to the draft communication, asking that access be restored "by the close of business on 05/30/2025." The council approved the communication 6–1, with one dissenting vote.

Council members and outside counsel told the meeting they were concerned about two separate but related issues: (1) whether the park board's method of delivering documents — producing PDFs with annotations and uploading selected files to a folder rather than allowing unfettered read‑only access — was slowing or impeding the audit, and (2) whether recent park board actions taken after executive sessions had been sufficiently described in public meeting minutes or agenda items.

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