October 16, 2001

Ms. Linda Cloud
Executive Director
Texas Lottery Commission
P.O. Box 16630
Austin, Texas 78761-6630

OR2001-4669

Dear Ms. Cloud:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 153425.

The Texas Lottery Commission (the "commission") received a request for "all complaint letters against Trend Gaming Systems, LLC and/or GameTech International, Inc. since June 1, 2001." The commission does not take a position as to whether the requested information is excepted from disclosure. The commission believes, however, that this request for information may implicate a private party's interests. The commission notified that party of this request for information and of the private party's right to submit arguments as to whether the information in question should be withheld from disclosure.⁽¹⁾ The private party submitted arguments to the commission, and the commission provided a copy of those arguments in requesting this decision. The commission also submitted the information at issue. We have considered the private party's arguments and have reviewed the requested information.

The private party contends that the requested information is protected by the informer's privilege. We note, however, that the informer's privilege protects the governmental body's interests, not those of private parties, and may be waived by the governmental body. See Open Records Decision Nos. 582 at 2 (1990), 549 at 6 (1990). The commission has not invoked the informer's privilege in requesting this decision. Therefore, the requested information is not excepted from disclosure and must be released.

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 Dept. 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,

James W. Morris, III
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division
JWM/sdk
Ref: ID# 153425
Enc: Submitted documents

c: Mr. Brian O'Toole
Kasling, O'Toole & Hemphill
823 Congress Avenue, Suite 1010
Austin, Texas 78701
(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. See Gov't Code § 552.305(d); Open Records Decision No. 542 (1990) (determining that statutory predecessor to Gov't Code § 552.305 permits governmental body to rely on interested third party to raise and explain applicability of exception to disclosure under Gov't Code ch. 552 in certain circumstances).
 

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