 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
|
July 6, 2006 Mr. Joseph T. Longoria
OR2006-07155 Dear Mr. Longoria: You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 253252. The Nolan County Appraisal District (the "district"), which you represent, received requests for information pertaining to ratio studies performed or received by the district in 2005 and 2006. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered your arguments and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information.(1) 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 exception encompasses information that other statutes make confidential. Section 22.27(a) of the Tax Code provides the following: Rendition statements, real and personal property reports, attachments to those statements and reports, and other information the owner of property provides to the appraisal office in connection with the appraisal of the property, including income and expense information related to a property filed with an appraisal office and information voluntarily disclosed to an appraisal office or the comptroller about real or personal property sales prices after a promise it will be held confidential, are confidential and not open to public inspection. The statements and reports and the information they contain about specific real or personal property or a specific real or personal property owner and information voluntarily disclosed to an appraisal office about real or personal property sales prices after a promise it will be held confidential may not be disclosed to anyone other than an employee of the appraisal office who appraises property except as authorized by Subsection (b) of this section. Tax Code § 22.27(a). We understand that the district is an "appraisal office" for purposes of section 22.27. You state that Exhibits 2 and 3 and some information in Exhibits 4 and 5 were provided to the district voluntarily from property owners after a promise that the information would be held confidential. Based on these representations, we agree that this information is confidential under section 22.27(a) of the Tax Code, and the district must withhold this information under section 552.101 of the Government Code. You inform us that the remaining information was obtained from a third party.(2) You state that the district obtained this information voluntarily only after a promise that the information would be held confidential. We note, however, that section 22.27(a) protects "information the owner of property provides to the appraisal office in connection with the appraisal of the property[.]" Id. § 22.27(a). Thus, you have not demonstrated that the information obtained from the third party falls within the scope of section 22.27(a), and the district may not withhold any information obtained from the third party under section 552.101 of the Government Code on that ground. See Open Records Decision No. 550 at 7 (1990) ("Information compiled by a private market research firm and provided to an appraisal district as part of a commercial transaction cannot be said to come within the kinds of information made confidential by section 22.27."). To conclude, the submitted information that property owners voluntarily provided to the district in connection with the appraisal of property after a promise of confidentiality is confidential under section 22.27(a) of the Tax Code and must be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code. The district must release the remaining information. 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, upon receiving this ruling, the governmental body will either release the public records promptly pursuant to section 552.221(a) of the Government Code or file a lawsuit challenging this ruling pursuant to section 552.324 of the Government Code. If the governmental body fails to do one of these things, 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 Dep't of Pub. 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 Office of the Attorney General 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, James L. Coggeshall
c: Ms. Abbigail Pendergraft
Footnotes 1. We assume that the "representative sample" of records submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. 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 that submitted to this office. 2. We note that you do not identify the third party at issue. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB:WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |