Dallas is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to keep secret the flight details of trips taken by the mayor, the city manager and council members, even as the city furloughs its own employees to close a budget gap. The lawsuit, filed in Travis County District Court in Austin, comes after the attorney general's office ruled that Dallas must release records tied to trips taken by the mayor and council members.
WFAA and other media outlets requested information about taxpayer-funded trips that included destinations such as New York, Montreal and Taiwan, according to WFAA. Dallas redacted information tied to flights and, in some cases, released only the dollar amount spent rather than itemized details. The city has released only some expense tables stripped of details, along with a smattering of hotel bookings and Uber trips, as reported by dallasnews.com.
City Cites a Transportation Code Change
Dallas city lawyers asked the attorney general's office to allow withholding the information, arguing that a state transportation code change that took effect in September 2025 protected the flight information from release. According to WFAA, Dallas city attorneys cited the provision as covering private information related to public use of an airport facility, with the transportation code exception including names, phone numbers, flight information and TSA PreCheck status.
The attorney general's office declined to allow Dallas to withhold the information and ruled that the city must release it to WFAA and other requesters. The dallasnews.com report similarly found that the attorney general's open records division had directed the city to release documents, determining that the transportation law wasn't relevant to these records requests. Dallas amended its original lawsuit to contest releasing additional records tied to Mayor Eric Johnson's trip to Montreal and an international trip by Council Member Jesse Moreno, according to dmagazine.com.
Lawmakers Say the Law Was Never Meant for This
Former state Rep. Yvonne Davis, who sponsored the transportation code bill, said the change was never intended to protect officials' travel records, per WFAA. State Sen. Nathan Johnson, who authored the bill in the Senate, said it was intended to protect the private data of airport customers — covering names, phone numbers, zip codes, TSA PreCheck numbers and Global Entry numbers for people upgrading wifi or paying for goods and services sold at an airport.
Reid Pillifant, an attorney with Haynes Boone — the firm WFAA hired to argue to the attorney general's office that the records should be released — said taxpayers deserve to know how money is spent on officials' travel. Pillifant said Dallas is stretching the exception beyond its intended purpose, and that the Legislature did not intend to protect taxpayer-funded travel by elected officials.
A Council Member Presses for Answers
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn sent a memo to City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert asking her to release the travel records, but said she had yet to receive a response from city officials. A Dallas city spokesperson declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation, per the same WFAA report. The city will not release the information while it continues suing the attorney general to keep it secret.
The fight over disclosure lands as Dallas tightens its belt elsewhere. The city suspended non-essential travel in April as part of General Fund budget-reduction strategies, according to the City of Dallas. Dallas also announced three mandatory furlough days for General Fund employees — July 10, September 4 and September 28 — and required non-uniform executives at or above the Assistant Director level to take two additional floating furlough days before September 16. City Manager Tolbert said the furloughs were meant to reduce expenses, protect jobs and employee health benefits, and continue delivering services to residents.
Texas Government Code Chapter 552 generally presumes that government information is public, though certain statutory exceptions can apply, according to the Texas Comptroller's office. How that balance plays out in Dallas's case over officials' travel records remains before the Travis County court.
