Elon Musk Tried Keeping Issues at His Texas Mansion Private, Emails Show
The tech billionaire’s staff were concerned that correspondence about his home in West Lake Hills would become public after neighbors complained.
The tech billionaire’s staff were concerned that correspondence about his home in West Lake Hills would become public after neighbors complained.
Few people want beefs with their neighbors to become public. That includes Elon Musk.
In March, Mr. Musk’s team lobbied officials in the upscale city of West Lake Hills, Texas, to keep quiet the details of one of his mansions and security operations, according to emails to city employees obtained by The New York Times through public records requests.
In those emails, the tech billionaire’s employees asked West Lake Hills officials to make private a public meeting in April — where neighbors might speak about his $6 million house. They pointed to Mr. Musk’s work with the Trump administration as reason that his property records and communications with the city be exempted from state and federal public records laws, the emails showed.
The homeowner should be exempt because he is a “federal public official,” one of Mr. Musk’s employees wrote in an email sent to the city on March 3, adding, “We can provide federal clearance documentation if needed.”
Mr. Musk, 53, was trying to keep a disagreement with his neighbors over the construction of a 16-foot, chain-link fence and a metal gate with a camera at the mansion under wraps. He had made the changes to the property without obtaining the proper permits, violating six city ordinances, and was trying to retroactively address the issue.
His privacy push was unsuccessful. The West Lake Hills city attorney ruled against a closed meeting, the emails show. Last month, at a gathering of the Zoning and Planning Commission, Mr. Musk lost his appeal to keep the fence and gate on his property. The matter goes next to a City Council meeting, which had been scheduled for May 14 but was rescheduled for June 11 after “the applicant requested a postponement,” Trey Fletcher, the city administrator, said on Tuesday.
