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Office of the Attorney General - State of Texas John Cornyn |
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March 20, 2002 Mr. Duncan C. Norton
OR2002-1393 Dear Mr. Norton: You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 161333. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (the "commission") received two requests for information pertaining to the disclosure of certain records. You state that you will be making some responsive information available to the requestor. You claim, however, that the remaining requested information is excepted from disclosure pursuant to sections 552.101, 552.103, 552.107, and 552.111 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim. We note at the outset that the commission failed to comply with the procedural requirements of section 552.301 of the Government Code. Section 552.301 provides in pertinent part that a governmental body that requests an attorney general decision must, within a reasonable time but not later than the fifteenth business day after the date of receiving the written request for information, submit to the attorney general a copy of the specific information requested or representative samples of the information, if a voluminous amount of information was requested. See Gov't Code § 552.301(e)(1)(D). However, the commission did not provide us with any portion of the requested information for our review within fifteen days of receiving the requests. When a governmental body fails to submit responsive information to us for review that it wishes to withhold from disclosure, the information at issue is presumed public. See Gov't Code § 552.302; see also Hancock v. State Bd. of Ins., 797 S.W.2d 379 (Tex. App.--Austin 1990, no writ); City of Houston v. Houston Chronicle Publ'g Co., 673 S.W.2d 316, 323 (Tex. App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 1984, no writ); Open Records Decision No. 319 (1982). The governmental body must show a compelling interest to withhold the information to overcome this presumption. See id. Normally, a compelling interest is some source of law that makes the information confidential or a demonstration that third party interests are at stake. See Open Records Decision No. 150 at 2 (1977). We note that sections 552.103, 552.107, and 552.111 of the Government Code are discretionary exceptions to disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act") that do not constitute compelling interests sufficient to overcome the presumption that the requested information is public.(1) Furthermore, because the commission did not submit the requested information for our review, we have no basis for concluding that it is otherwise confidential by law under section 552.101 of the Government Code. Accordingly, we conclude that the commission must release all remaining information that it holds that is responsive to the requests. 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 Texas Building and Procurement 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. We note that a third party may challenge this ruling by filing suit seeking to withhold information from a requestor. Gov't Code § 552.325. 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, Ronald J. Bounds
RJB/seg Ref: ID# 161333 cc: Ms. Becky Bornhorst
Ms. Katy Huebner
Footnotes 1. Discretionary exceptions are intended to protect only the interests of the governmental body, as distinct from exceptions which are intended to protect information deemed confidential by law or the interests of third parties. See, e.g., Open Records Decision Nos. 630 at 4 (1994) (governmental body may waive attorney-client privilege, section 552.107(1)), 551 (1990) (statutory predecessor to section 552.103 serves only to protect governmental body's position in litigation and does not itself make information confidential), 473 (1987) (governmental body may waive section 552.111), 522 at 4 (1989) (discretionary exceptions in general). Discretionary exceptions, therefore, do not constitute "other law" that makes information confidential. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |