January 30, 2007

Mr. Scott A. Kelly
Deputy General Counsel
Texas A&M System
200 Technology Way, Suite 2079
College Station, Texas 77845-3424

OR2007-01124

Dear Mr. Kelly:

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# 270265.

Texas A&M University (the "university") received a request for proposals submitted by the respondents to an RFQ and the evaluation sheet. You state that the evaluation sheet is being released. You take no position with respect to the public availability of the responsive proposals that you have submitted. You believe, however, that the submitted information may implicate the proprietary interests of FNB Project Partners, L.L.C. ("FNB"); Parsons Commercial Technology Group, Inc. ("Parsons"); Prism Development, Inc. ("Prism"); and Quad-Tex Construction, Inc. ("Quad-Tex"). You notified FNB, Parsons, Prism, and Quad-Tex of this request for information and of their right to submit arguments to this office as to why the information should not be released. ⁽¹⁾ We have reviewed the submitted information.

An interested third party is allowed ten business days from the date of its receipt of the governmental body's notice under section 552.305 of the Government Code to submit its reasons, if any, as to why information relating to that party should not be released. See Gov't Code § 552.305(d)(2)(B). As of the date of this decision, this office has received no correspondence from FNB, Parsons, Prism, or Quad-Tex. Thus, there has been no demonstration that any of the submitted information is proprietary for the purposes of the Act. See Gov't Code § 552.110(a)-(b); Open Records Decision Nos. 552 at 5 (1990), 661 at 5-6 (1999). Therefore, none of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure, and the information 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,

James W. Morris, III

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JWM/jww

Ref: ID# 270265

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Ms. Laura Thurmond

CBIC Construction & Development, L.L.C.

2616 South Loop West Suite, 303

Houston, Texas 77054

(w/o enclosures)

Mr. John M. New

FNB Project Partners, L.L.C.

711 Navarro Street, Suite 215

San Antonio, Texas 78205

(w/o enclosures)

Mr. James Lloyd

Parsons Commercial Technology Group, Inc.

1900 West Loop South Suite 400

Houston, Texas 77027

(w/o enclosures)

Mr. Michael von Ohlen

Prism Development, Inc.

2709 East 5^th Street

Austin, Texas 78702

(w/o enclosures)

Ms. Susan Chmelar

Quad-Tex Construction, Inc.

3600 Park Meadow Lane

Bryan, Texas 77802

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. See Gov't Code § 552.305(d); Open Records Decision No. 542 (1990) (statutory predecessor to Gov't Code § 552.305 permitted governmental body to rely on interested third party to raise and explain applicability of exception to disclosure under certain circumstances).

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