February 1, 2001

Mr. Donald R. Postell
City Attorney
City of Grand Prairie
P.O. Box 534045
Grand Prairie, Texas 75053-4045

OR2001-0398

Dear Mr. Postell:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 143867.

The City of Grand Prairie (the "city") received a request for all records related to the rabies vaccination clinic held on November 11, 2000 at the Grand Prairie Animal Shelter. You state that you have released much of the requested information, but you claim that actual vaccination certificates are excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 826.0211 of the Health and Safety Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of the information at issue.⁽¹⁾

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from public disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Accordingly, section 552.101 encompasses confidentiality provisions such as section 826.0211 of the Health and Safety Code. Section 826.0211 makes confidential "[i]nformation that is contained in a rabies vaccination certificate that identifies or tends to identify the owner or an address, telephone number, or other personally identifying information of the owner of the vaccinated animal." The only exception to this confidentiality is that the information may be disclosed "to a governmental entity for purposes related to the protection of public health and safety." Health & Safety Code § 826.0211(b).

Here, it does not appear that the requestor is a governmental entity, and therefore, section 826.0211(b) does not seem to apply. Consequently, under section 826.0211(a), as encompassed by section 552.101, the city must withhold the information contained in the vaccination certificates that identifies or tends to identify the owners of the vaccinated animals. The city must release the remaining information. We have marked the submitted vaccination certificates accordingly.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must appeal by filing suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such an appeal, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3), (c). If the governmental body does not appeal this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. § 552.321(a).

If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, within 10 calendar days of this ruling, the governmental body will do one of the following three things: 1) release the public records; 2) notify the requestor of the exact day, time, and place that copies of the records will be provided or that the records can be inspected; or 3) notify the requestor of the governmental body's intent to challenge this letter ruling in court. If the governmental body fails to do one of these three things within 10 calendar days of this ruling, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at 877/673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e).

If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can appeal that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Department of Public Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408, 411 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ).

Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the General Services Commission at 512/475-2497.

If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling.

Sincerely,

E. Joanna Fitzgerald
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division

EJF/er

Ref: ID# 143867

Encl: Submitted documents

cc: Dr. Mark Sheets
Animal Clinic of Grand Prairie
614 N. Beltline Road
Grand Prairie, Texas 75050
(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume that the "representative sample" of records submitted to this office is truly representative of all of the information at issue. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach and, therefore, does not authorize the withholding of any other requested records to the extent that those records contain substantially different types of information than those submitted to this office.
 

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