August 5, 2002

Ms. Angela M. DeLuca
Assistant City Attorney
City of College Station
P.O. Box 9960
College Station, Texas 77842

OR2002-4264

Dear Ms. DeLuca:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 166617

The College Station Police Department (the "department") received a request for fourteen categories of information pertaining to a named police officer for the time period of March 31, 2000, until the date of the request, May 13, 2002. You state that, pursuant to a previous determination issued by this office, you have redacted the officer's social security number based on section 552.117(2). See Open Records Decision No. 670 (2001) (providing that governmental bodies may withhold information under section 552.117(2) without requesting decision from this office). You state that a complete copy of the responsive documents is enclosed as Exhibit C. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.103 and 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information, which you have labeled as Exhibit C-1 and Exhibit C-2. Exhibit C-1 is the officer's salary information. Exhibit C-2 is the officer's overtime hours history detail for the time period of January, 2001, until May 3, 2002.

Section 552.022 of the Government Code makes certain information expressly public, unless it is confidential under other law. One category of expressly public information under section 552.022 is "the name, sex, ethnicity, salary, title, and dates of employment of each employee and officer of a governmental body[.]" Gov't Code § 552.022(a)(2). Although you claim that the information submitted in Exhibits C-1 and C-2 is excepted from disclosure pursuant to sections 552.103 and 552.108 of the Government Code, these exceptions are discretionary exceptions to disclosure under the Public Information Act that do not constitute "other law" for purposes of section 552.022.⁽¹⁾ Accordingly, Exhibits C-1 and C-2 must be released to the requestor.

In summary, the city must release to the requestor the submitted information based on section 552.022(a)(2) of the Government Code.

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,

V.G. Schimmel
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division
VGS/sdk
Ref: ID# 166617
Enc: Submitted documents

c: Mr. Jim W. James
1716 Briarcrest, Suite 505
Bryan, Texas 77806
(w/o enclosures)

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), 586 (1991) (governmental body may waive section 552.108) 522 at 4 (1989) (discretionary exceptions in general).
 

POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US
An Equal Employment Opportunity Employer