Have any other counties received the open records request from MALDEF that contains 52 or so requests? I know our county and one next door received the same request. I don't really have any problem with most of the material requested, just the amount of time that will be required to gather it..... Any thoughts? Is anyone requiring a fee or bond up front?

This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with drug task forces, would it? If so, check here:

https://tdcaa.infopop.net/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=347098965&f=257098965&m=916105033

We haven't yet received the request you got. We're usually busy dealing with Advocacy, Inc. Whoever the requestor may be, the PIA requires every request to be treated the same, and the Local Government Code general contemplates county fees being due at the time service is provided (as opposed to billing later). Thus, it's a good idea to have an up-front, uniformly applied billing and bond policy (or practice). Moreover, the PIA itself contemplates payment of permissible charges as a condition to receipt of requested public information. See Tex. Gov't Code sec. 552.261(d). Those who truly want the information are almost uniformly willing to pay. Those who just want to harass you generally don't want to be out any money to do so. As a related aside, though we often are asked to, our county has yet to determine that any request (many of which are easily enough determined -- without asking the purpose for the request -- to be early discovery for a lawsuit against the county or its personnel) is of such benefit to the general public that charges should be waived under section 552.267.

This request had to do with spanish translations of ballots etc.and efforts to provide bilingual election judges and clerks, training in those areas and a whole list of related items. A majority of the info we do not have and have never had. Our response to this so far has been "we are gathering the info and it will take approx. X days to get it together".
I believe most of the requests are valid but the work to accumulate the info is the problem. Lastly, if a requested item is a "public record" anyway (without a request) such as election results by precint, that are open to the public during office hours and copies available for a fee....Does the fee change to that set out by the schedule in the open records handbook, or does the standard fee (ex. $1 per page)still apply that the clerk would charge anyone coming into the office and wanting copies without an OR reguest?

If the record is reduced to a paper copy by your county clerk's office, the charge for the copy is that provided by Chapter 118, Local Government Code (generally, the $1 per page you mentioned). See Tex. Gov't Code sec. 552.265. Any record that would be provided in accordance with the PIA, by definition, would be public information regardless of whether you keep it at the front desk or have to go look for it. Thus, the fact that a document is public in a broad, orthodox sense doesn't change the application of section 552.265 (though it might bear on whether an exception to disclosure under subchapter C would be available, or whether section 552.022 would make the record public information per se).

Scott, I will be hitting town sometime Thursday afternoon for the Leg. update on Friday. Do I need to bring a jacket, or will the temperature still be just shy of the melting point for lead?

So long as you bring your oil well firefighting suit, and fill your car with liquid nitrogen, you should be fine.

Mike Hartman said: "A majority of the information we do not have and have never had."
Scott, is the PIA like the Fed Privacy Act, in that one does not have to create a record to satisfy a request?

As the word has come down from the rarified air of the AG's office, "the Act [PIA] does not require a governmental body to prepare new information in response to a request ... [and] a governmental body is not required to comply with a continuing request to supply inforamtion on a periodic basis as such information is prepared in the future [the so-called "running request"]." Public Information Handbook 2004 (Office of the Att'y Gen.), at 15 (citing, inter alia, A&T Consultants, Inc. v. Sharp, 904 S.W.2d 668, 676 (Tex. 1995); Tex. Att'y Gen. ORD-452 (1986), at 2-3) (punctuation added).