April 13, 2007

Ms. Margo Kaiser
Staff Attorney
Open Records Unit
Texas Workforce Commission
101 East 15^th Street
Austin, Texas 78778-0001

OR2007-04147

Dear Ms. Kaiser:

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#275633.

The Texas Workforce Commission (the "commission") received a request for information pertaining to a specified investigation. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101 and 552.111 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

Section 3616 of title 42 of the United States Code states that the commission is authorized by statute to utilize the services of state and local fair housing agencies to assist in meeting its statutory mandate to enforce laws prohibiting discrimination. See 42 U.S.C. § 3616. You state that, pursuant to this authorization, the commission's Civil Rights Division ("CRD") is currently operating under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the investigation and resolution of complaints of housing discrimination. Section 301.063 of the Property Code details that the CRD shall receive, investigate, seek to conciliate, and act on complaints alleging violations of the Texas Fair Housing Act. See Prop. Code § 301.063. Then, upon the filing of a complaint, both federal and state law mirror each other in language and encourage conciliation to the extent feasible. See 42 U.S.C. § 3610(b) (providing that during the period beginning with the filing of a complaint and ending with the filing of a charge or a dismissal the commission shall engage in conciliation, to the extent feasible); Prop. Code § 301.085 (providing that the commission shall, during the period beginning with the filing of a complaint and ending with the filing of a charge or a dismissal by the commission, to the extent feasible, engage in conciliation with respect to the complaint).

You indicate that the CRD handled a discrimination complaint filed with the commission under their cooperative agreement and engaged in conciliation attempts pursuant to federal and state law regarding the investigation at issue. You claim that the submitted documents were created during these conciliation attempts and are therefore confidential under section 301.085 of the Property Code. Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Section 552.101 encompasses information protected by section 301.085, which provides in part:

(e) Statements made or actions taken in the conciliation may not be made public or used as evidence in a subsequent proceeding under this chapter without the written consent of the persons concerned.

Prop. Code § 301.085(e). The submitted information consists of investigative notes into allegations of housing discrimination. You indicate that these documents were created during the conciliation attempts and no written consent for their release exists. Based on your representations and our review, we find that the submitted information is confidential under section 301.085(e) of the Property Code and must be withheld under section 552.101. ⁽²⁾

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,

Holly R. Davis

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

HRD/eeg

Ref: ID# 275633

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Ms. Lois Kohler

LK Management, Inc.

P.O. Box 16338

Sugar Land, Texas 77496

(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. As our ruling is dispositive, we need not address your remaining argument against disclosure.

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