November 30, 2006

Ms. Karen A. Ostberg
Assistant City Attorney
City of Corpus Christi
P.O. Box 9277
Corpus Christi, Texas 78469-9277

OR2006-14075

Dear Ms. Ostberg:

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# 265772.

The City of Corpus Christi (the "city") received a request for information pertaining to applicants for the city's Director of Public Information position. You state that the city will release some of the requested information. You claim that portions of the submitted information are excepted from disclosure under sections 552.117, 552.130, 552.137, and 552.147 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information. ⁽¹⁾

Section 552.117(a)(1) of the Government Code excepts from disclosure the home addresses and telephone numbers, social security numbers, and family member information of current or former officials or employees of a governmental body who request that this information be kept confidential under section 552.024 of the Government Code. See Gov't Code § 552.117(a)(1). However, information subject to section 552.117(a)(1) may not be withheld from disclosure if the current or former employee made the request for confidentiality under section 552.024 after the request for information at issue was received by the governmental body. We note that an individual's personal post office box number is not a "home address" for purposes of section 552.117, and therefore may not be withheld under this section. See Open Records Decision No. 622 at 4 (1994) (purpose of section 552.117 is to protect public employees from being harassed at home); see also Open Records Decision No. 658 at 4 (1998) (statutory confidentiality provision must be express and cannot be implied). Whether a particular piece of information is public must be determined at the time the request for it is made. See Open Records Decision No. 530 at 5 (1989). Section 552.117(a)(2) excepts from disclosure this same information regarding a peace officer regardless of whether the officer elected under section 552.024 or 552.1175 of the Government Code to keep such information confidential. ⁽²⁾ In this case, you inform us that the employees at issue timely elected confidentiality under section 552.024. Thus, the city must withhold the employee information we have marked under section 552.117(a)(1) and the peace officer information we have marked under section 552.117(a)(2).

Next, you assert that some of the remaining information is excepted under section 552.130 of the Government Code, which provides that information relating to a motor vehicle operator's license, driver's license, motor vehicle title, or registration issued by a Texas agency is excepted from public release. Gov't Code § 552.130(a)(1), (2). Thus, the city must withhold the Texas motor vehicle record information we have marked under section 552.130.

Next, we address your claim under section 552.137 of the Government Code, which excepts from public disclosure certain e-mail addresses of members of the public that are provided for the purpose of communicating electronically with a governmental body, unless the individual to whom the e-mail address belongs has affirmatively consented to its public disclosure. Id. § 552.137. Section 552.137 is not applicable to an institutional e-mail address, an Internet website address, or an e-mail address that a governmental entity maintains for one of its officials or employees. The marked e-mail addresses do not appear to be of a type specifically excluded by section 552.137(c). Thus, the city must withhold the marked e-mail addresses under section 552.137 unless the owners of the email addresses have affirmatively consented to their release. See id. § 552.137(b).

Finally, section 552.147 of the Government Code provides that "[t]he social security number of a living person is excepted from" required public disclosure under the Act. ⁽³⁾ Id. § 552.147. The city must withhold the social security numbers, which we have marked, under section 552.147.

In summary, the city must withhold (1) the marked employee information under section 552.117(a)(1) of the Government Code, (2) the marked peace officer information under section 552.117(a)(2) of the Government Code, (3) the marked Texas motor vehicle record information under section 552.130 of the Government Code, (4) the marked e-mail addresses under section 552.137 of the Government Code, unless the owners of the email addresses have affirmatively consented to their release, and (5) the marked social security numbers under section 552.147 of the Government Code. The remaining submitted information must be released to the requestor.

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,

Shelli Egger

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

SE/sdk

Ref: ID# 265772

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Mr. Reynaldo Madrigal

1113 18^th Street

Corpus Christi, Texas 78405

(w/o enclosures)

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. The term "peace officer" is defined in article 2.12 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

3. We note that section 552.147(b) of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact a living person's social security number from public release without the necessity of requesting a decision from this officer under the Act.

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