August 9, 1999

Mr. Chris M. Borunda
Assistant City Attorney
The City of El Paso
Two Civic Center Plaza
El Paso, Texas 79901

OR99-2231

Dear Mr. Borunda:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 126634.

The City of El Paso (the "city") received a request for an incident report relating to a fire set by children. You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the report at issue.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." This section encompasses information protected by other statutes. Section 58.007 of the Family Code provides for the confidentiality of juvenile law enforcement records. However, section 58.007 applies only to the records of a child who is

(A) ten years of age or older and under 17 years of age; or

(B) seventeen years of age or older and under 18 years of age who is alleged or found to have engaged in delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision as a result of acts committed before becoming 17 years of age.

Fam. Code § 51.02(1). In this case, the children who set the fire were all under ten years of age when the incident occurred. For this reason, the incident report is not confidential under section 58.007. The city must, therefore, disclose the incident report.

We are resolving this matter with an informal letter ruling rather than with a published open records decision. This ruling is limited to the particular records at issue under the facts presented to us in this request and should not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records. If you have questions about this ruling, please contact our office.

Sincerely,

Karen E. Hattaway
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division

KEH/ch

Ref: ID# 126634

Encl. Submitted documents

cc: Ms. Linda Thompson
5301 Trans Mountain Road, #1073
El Paso, Texas 79901
(w/o enclosures)

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