 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
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August 3, 2006 Ms. Bryn Meredith
OR2006-08671 Dear Ms. Meredith: 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# 255745. The Town of Dish (the "town"), which you represent, received a request for three categories of information including the correspondence between a named attorney and the mayor and town hall, all bank statements and checks and attorney fee bills for the town from June 1, 2005 through May 15, 2006, and the agenda and minutes for the special meeting called in July 2005 "when the plat for the 62+ acres was approved." In your letter dated July 11, 2006, you state that the requestor clarified his request by informing the town that he did not want the requested correspondence between a named attorney and the mayor and town hall. Thus, you state that the town withdraws the portion of the request pertaining to this correspondence. Therefore, the submitted correspondence is not responsive to the request for information, and we need not address the applicability of the Act to it. You claim that a portion of the remaining submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.136 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.(1) Initially, we note that the town has only submitted bank statements and checks for our review. As the town has not submitted the requested attorney fee bills or the requested agenda and minutes for our review, we assume the town has released these records to the extent they existed on the date the town received the request. If the town has not released any such records, it must release them to the requestor at this time. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(a), 302; Open Records Decision No. 664 (2000) (noting that if governmental body concludes that no exceptions apply to the requested information, it must release the information as soon as possible under circumstances). Now we turn to your argument concerning the submitted bank statements and checks. Section 552.136 of the Government Code provides: (a) In this section, "access device" means a card, plate, code, account number, personal identification number, electronic serial number, mobile identification number, or other telecommunications service, equipment, or instrument identifier or means of account access that alone or in conjunction with another access device may be used to: (1) obtain money, goods, services, or another thing of value; or (2) initiate a transfer of funds other than a transfer originated solely by paper instrument. (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a credit card, debit card, charge card, or access device number that is collected, assembled, or maintained by or for a governmental body is confidential. Gov't Code § 552.136. Upon review, we agree that the bank account numbers you have marked, as well as the additional bank account numbers we have marked, must be withheld pursuant to section 552.136 of the Government Code. As you do not raise any other exceptions against disclosure, the remaining information at issue 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, 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. 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, Jaclyn N. Thompson
c: L.E. Clark
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. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB:WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |