Open Records Decision No. 268
April 16, 1981

	Re:  Whether certain records held by the Seguin Housing Authority are available 
under the Open Records Act

Mr. A. Robert Raetzsch
Assistant County Attorney
Guadalupe County Courthouse
Seguin, Texas  78155

Dear Mr. Raetzsch:

	You have requested our decision under the Open Records Act, article 6252-17a, 
V.T.C.S., as to whether certain records held by the Seguin Housing Authority are 
available to the public.

	The housing authority of the city of Seguin was created by the city pursuant to 
article 1269k, V.T.C.S.  The commissioners who compose the authority are appointed by 
the mayor.  V.T.C.S. art. 1269k, §5.  The authority constitutes “a public body corporate 
and politic, exercising public and essential governmental functions.”  V.T.C.S. art. 
1269k, §8.  You state that the housing authority operates two kinds of programs.  In the 
first of these, the authority acts as landlord and manager of apartment units.  In the other, 
the authority pays a monthly subsidy to private owners of apartment units on behalf of 
eligible tenants, i.e., those who meet the income requirements established by the federal 
Department of Housing and Urban Development.

	An individual has requested that you furnish her three types of information:  (1) a 
listing of the addresses of housing units operated by private landlords who participated in 
the subsidy program from January 1979 through October 1980; (2) a listing of the 
owners and/or managers of these units; and (3) the total amounts paid by the authority to 
the owner or manager from January 1979 through October 1980.  You first suggest that 
the housing authority is not a “governmental body” within the meaning of the Open 
Records Act.

	Section 2(1) of the Open Records Act defines “governmental body” to include, 
inter alia:

the part, section, or portion of every organization, corporation, 
commission, committee, institution, or agency which is supported in 
whole or in part by public funds, or which expends public funds.  
Public funds as used herein shall mean funds of the State of Texas 
or any governmental subdivision thereof. . . .

It is undisputed that the housing authority is an agent of Seguin, created by act of the 
city; its commissioners are appointed by the mayor.  You state that the authority does not 
receive any revenues from the state of Texas, Guadalupe County, the city of Seguin, or 
any other local taxing authority.  Its revenue is entirely derived from the rentals it 
collects and from federal funds.

	Even though the authority may receive no funds directly from the state or any 
local government, the amounts it collects from its rentals assume the character of “public 
moneys” as soon as they are paid to the authority.  Unless they are trust funds, all funds 
collected by a public agency constitute “public moneys,” whether their collection is 
referable to the police power or to the taxing power.  Texas Pharmaceutical Assn. v. 
Dooley, 90 S.W.2d 328, 330 (Tex. Civ. App. - Austin 1936, no writ).  See generally 
Letter Advisory No. 132 (1977).  We conclude that the housing authority of the city of 
Seguin is a “governmental body” within the meaning of the Open Records Act.

	You also contend that the information here requested is excepted from disclosure 
by section 3(a)(1) of the act, as “information deemed confidential by law,” specifically 
by judicial decisions recognizing individual privacy.  We believe it is clear that the 
information is not excepted by a constitutional right of privacy.  See Industrial 
Foundation of the South v. Texas Industrial Accident Board, 540 S.W.2d 668, 679 (Tex. 
1976).  In order for information to be excepted by a common law right of privacy, it 
must:

contain highly intimate or embarrassing facts about a person's 
private affairs, such that its publication would be highly 
objectionable to a person of ordinary sensibilities.

540 S.W.2d at 683.

	In our opinion, the requested information, containing the addresses of subsidized 
housing units, the names of the owners thereof, and the amounts of individual subsidies 
paid for each unit, is not embraced within the purview of common law privacy.  We have 
frequently noted that the scope of common law privacy is narrow indeed.  See Open 
Records Decision Nos. 262 (1980); 260 (1980); 258 (1980); 257 (1980).  In Open 
Records Decision No. 201 (1977), this office said that information relating to loans made 
by an official community action agency to specific individuals was not excepted by 
section 3(a)(1).  Accordingly, it is our decision that records listing addresses and owners 
of subsidized housing units, as well as amounts paid by the housing authority to such 
owners on behalf of eligible tenants, are not excepted from disclosure under any 
provision of the Open Records Act.

Very truly yours,

Mark White
Attorney General of Texas

John W. Fainter, Jr.
First Assistant Attorney General

Richard E. Gray III
Executive Assistant Attorney General

Prepared by Rick Gilpin
Assistant Attorney General

APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE

Susan L. Garrison, Chairman
Jon Bible
Walter Davis
Rick Gilpin