| Bill would tidy up record transfers Laws didn't anticipate transition to governor 04/13/2001 By Wayne Slater / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – When Rick Perry got a new job in December, he cleaned out the records at the lieutenant governor's office and transferred everything to his new office as governor.
Now, he wants to clean up state law to make sure it was legal.
Under a bill filed this week at Mr. Perry's request, "a lieutenant governor who vacates the office of lieutenant governor to complete the unexpired term of the governor" can legally transfer the records from one office to the other.
"We asked for the bill as a kind of cleanup thing," said Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt.
"The transition from lieutenant governor to the governor's office was a rather unusual occurrence that hadn't been foreseen in previous law," she said.
Mr. Perry moved up to the governor's office after George W. Bush was elected president of the United States midway through his second term.
Once he assumed the new job, Mr. Perry and his staff transferred a mountain of correspondence, schedules and other state documents out of the lieutenant governor's office.
"Those files were brought over in accordance with common business practices, like when a business moves its working files because those files are still in use, still being referenced by the governor's office," Ms. Walt said.
Sen. J.E. "Buster" Brown, R-Lake Jackson, is the sponsor of the bill, which was filed so late in the legislative session that he had to receive Senate approval to introduce it.
Mr. Brown said he didn't know much about the legislation, referring questions to Senate Parliamentarian Walter Fisher. Mr. Fisher said the measure was designed to ensure the transfer of documents is covered by state law.
Ms. Walt said it was "not illegal, to my knowledge" for Mr. Perry to have moved the records. Nevertheless, the governor's office sought a specific exception to the state law that forbids anyone to destroy, remove or impairthe availability of government records.
Ms. Walt said the office made electronic copies of all the files so they are available to Mr. Perry's successor, acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff. She said the transfer has had no effect on public access to the records.
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