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Independent journalism, no-cost municipal consulting, governance training, recovery work, and civil rights reporting for Texas local government. 100% reader-funded. Cities pay nothing.
How to Help.
Contributions underwrite the full scope of Watchtower’s work: public records requests, document analysis, interviews, on-the-ground reporting, municipal consulting, governance training, recovery work, travel between communities, business and legal expenses, and the infrastructure that keeps everything running. Watchtower operates without paywalls, advertisers, or corporate sponsorship and is fully reader-funded.
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By the Numbers
Why Your Support Matters
Watchtower’s work spans independent investigative journalism, municipal compliance consulting, financial oversight, governance training, municipal recovery, whistleblower investigations, civil rights reporting, and forum moderation. Every part of this is resource-intensive: filing public records requests, attending public meetings, traveling between communities, analyzing contracts, building investigations from primary-source documentation, engaging counsel on business and legal matters, and sustaining the operating infrastructure a statewide effort requires.
Every service Watchtower offers to Texas cities, counties, and special districts is provided free of charge. We take no money from the local governments we cover or consult with, no advertising, and no corporate sponsorship. Reader contributions are the only way this work happens.
Every dollar contributed keeps cities from having to pay for the oversight their residents already paid for once through taxes, and keeps our reporting and consulting independent of the bodies it covers.
Ways to Support
One-Time Contribution
A single contribution in any amount. Funds are applied directly to public records request fees, document analysis, interview and consulting travel, on-the-ground reporting, business and legal expenses, and the publication of Watchtower’s work.
ContributeMonthly Support
Recurring monthly contributions provide predictable operating funding. Sustained support enables long-range investigative planning, multi-month consulting and recovery engagements with specific cities, timely processing of public records requests, and the legal and business infrastructure that holds the operation together.
Subscribe MonthlyRecent Reporting Your Support Makes Possible
These are the investigations readers like you have funded. Every story started with a public records request.
Italy Council Candidate Shelby Browning Answers the 2026 Questionnaire
Italy city council candidate Shelby Browning submitted written answers to the nine-question 2026 Candidate Questionnaire. She calls for stronger oversight of taxpayer spending, active accountability for the city's EDC reserves, and year-round engagement with residents.
Italy Council Candidate Quentin Dean Little Answers the 2026 Questionnaire
Italy city council candidate Quentin Dean Little submitted written answers to the nine-question 2026 Candidate Questionnaire. He calls for rescinding the city's social media policy, restoring self-sustaining city services, and a transparency-first approach to governance.
Back in Kerens TX Talk, and What Comes Next
A thank you to the Kerens TX Talk admins, a note on why open forums matter, and a preview of the Kerens coverage coming up: records request experience, candidate forum clips, and why I am not doing individual candidate calls for this election.
A Note to Tool Residents on Officer Ochoa
Thank you for the response. Here is what I am seeing in your accounts, where things stand with the city, and how you can help move this forward.
Where Your Money Goes
- Public records requests -- filing fees, copying costs, and labor charges assessed by government bodies under the Texas Public Information Act
- Document analysis -- tools and time spent reviewing contracts, financial records, meeting minutes, audits, and public filings across every service line
- Interviews and source work -- speaking with community members, public officials, witnesses, whistleblowers, and subject-matter experts to build complete, accurate accounts of what happened and why
- On-the-ground work -- attending city council meetings, conducting consulting visits, moderating forums, documenting conditions in covered communities, and being physically present where the work is
- Travel -- vehicle expenses, fuel, and overnight stays in the cities, counties, and special districts Watchtower covers, consults with, and serves across Texas
- Business and legal expenses -- business attorney fees, entity and regulatory compliance, pre-publication review, insurance, and counsel engaged to defend the right to report on public bodies
- Infrastructure -- website hosting, email hosting, secure document storage, a dedicated phone line, and the communication tools we rely on to coordinate with sources, officials, and the public
Watchtower is a private company. Payments are not tax-deductible charitable contributions. Your support is a payment to a private entity in exchange for sustaining independent journalism operations. Payments are processed securely by Stripe.