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Resident alleges major open‑records data release, urges outside audit of Mount Pleasant systems
Summary
A resident told the City Council that Mount Pleasant’s open‑records portal exposed hundreds of Social Security numbers and several sexual‑assault exam records; he asked the council to return his ethics complaints to the public docket and order an independent investigation and audit.
Kyle Moring urged the Mount Pleasant City Council on Tuesday to investigate what he described as a significant data‑security lapse by the city and to reopen his ethics complaints for public consideration.
"On the city's open gov transparency portal, over 600 social security number entries, at least 20 distinct social security numbers ... and about 35 sexual assault forensic exam payment records containing victim identifying personal information," Moring said, and he told the council one record appeared to involve a 13‑year‑old. He said the city subsequently certified to the state that it had no responsive records and that he had notified OpenGov, Schneider Electric, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Moring asked the council to place his formal ethics complaints back on a public docket and to order an independent audit and outside investigation of the city’s internal controls. He criticized the city's response to his report and said the city's outside counsel, Austin Beck, had invoked Texas Government Code section 552.352 against him in response to his disclosure of the unredacted police report.
The transcript of the meeting records Moring’s allegations and requests but contains no immediate, on‑the‑record response from city staff presenting a corrective plan or an independent review timeline. City Manager Rob Vine later addressed unrelated social‑media misinformation about an animal shelter matter but did not, during the meeting, provide a public statement addressing Moring’s allegations about the open‑records portal.
What happens next: Moring asked the council to act publicly on his ethics complaints and to commission an outside audit; the council did not take a formal action on that request during this meeting.
