Deputy City Secretary Jesus Salazar mailed the Texas Attorney General’s Office a letter claiming the city provided all records when requested by City Council member Jesse Davis late this past year.

Davis requested all written communications of city administrators and his colleagues on the City Council in relation to the city’s recent redistricting efforts.

He was confident enough he hadn’t gotten all records responsive to his request, which was legally filed under the Texas Public Information Act, that he requested investigations into the matter from the Denton Police Department, as well as the attorney general’s office.

Frank Dixon, the city’s police chief until a replacement can be found, was out of town and unavailable to comment about the status of that investigation Friday afternoon.

Davis announced his request for the investigations this past Tuesday during the City Council’s work session.

While Davis didn’t request a Denton Police Department investigation until earlier this week, he wrote to the attorney general’s office on Feb. 9 to request it look into alleged breaches of the Texas Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act.

The attorney general’s office sent the city of Denton a letter requesting a response to Davis’ allegations on March 14. That letter required the city to respond within 10 business days.

“Although the [Office of the Attorney General] has civil enforcement authority under the [Texas Public Information Act], our office prefers to work with governmental bodies and requestors to resolve complaints informally,” the letter read. “The easiest way to resolve this open records complaint is to release the requested information, provided the information is not confidential by law.”

The city’s response, mailed out Thursday afternoon, was a simple form letter where Salazar initialed next to an option that stated the following: “I certify the governmental body has made available to the requestor all existing responsive information that this governmental body owns, controls, or has a right of access to.”

Davis, asked for comment Friday, said the city’s letter to the attorney general “is not factually correct.”

“I absolutely believe that city staff [members] have turned over everything that council members provided to them,” he wrote via email.

At issue is Davis’ assertion that one or more of his colleagues either didn’t provide records they were legally required to, or that one or more of them deleted messages that were legally considered public records. Either way, he contends a crime was committed.

MARSHALL REID can be reached at 940-566-6862 and via Twitter at @MarshallKReid.