June 18, 2007

Mr. Ronald J. Bounds
Assistant City Attorney
City of Corpus Christi
P.O. Box 9277
Corpus Christi, Texas 78469-9277

OR2007-07620

Dear Mr. Bounds:

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# 281295.

The City of Corpus Christi (the "city") received a request for "the property owners on record" for a specified street address. You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Initially, we must address the city's obligations under section 552.301 of the Government Code, which prescribes the procedures that a governmental body must follow in asking this office to decide whether requested information is excepted from public disclosure. Pursuant to section 552.301(b), a governmental body must ask for a decision from this office and state the exceptions that apply within ten business days of receiving the written request. See Gov't Code § 552.301(b). The city received the request for information on March 29, 2007, but did not request a decision from this office until April 13, 2007. You do not inform us that the city was closed for any of the business days between March 29, 2007 and April 13, 2007. Thus, the city failed to comply with the procedural requirements mandated by section 552.301.

Pursuant to section 552.302 of the Government Code, a governmental body's failure to comply with the procedural requirements of section 552.301 results in the legal presumption that the requested information is public and must be released unless the governmental body demonstrates a compelling reason to withhold the information from disclosure. See id. § 552.302; Hancock v. State Bd. of Ins., 797 S.W.2d 379, 381-82 (Tex. App.-Austin 1990, no writ); Open Records Decision No. 319 (1982). A compelling reason exists when third-party interests are at stake or when information is confidential under other law. Open Records Decision No. 150 (1977). Section 552.101 of the Government Code can provide a compelling reason to overcome this presumption; therefore, we will consider whether this section requires the city to withhold the responsive information.

Section 552.101 excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses information protected by other statutes. Section 182.052(a) of the Utilities Code provides in relevant part the following:

Except as provided by Section 182.054, a government-operated utility may not disclose personal information in a customer's account record, or any information relating to the volume or units of utility usage or the amounts billed to or collected from the individual for utility usage, if the customer requests that the government-operated utility keep the information confidential. . . .

Util. Code § 182.052(a). "Personal information" under section 182.052(a) means an individual's address, telephone number, or social security number. See id. § 182.051(4); see also Open Records Decision No. 625 (1994) (construing statutory predecessor). Water service is included in the scope of utility services covered by section 182.052. Util. Code § 182.051(3).

In this instance, you seek to withhold the name of the utility customer at the specified address. We note, however, that the names of customers are not included in the definition of personal information under section 182.051(4) and thus are not confidential under section 182.052. See also Open Records Decision No. 649 at 3 (1996) (language of statutory confidentiality provision controls scope of its protection). Therefore, you may not withhold the customer's name under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 182.052 of the Utilities Code. As you claim no other exception to disclosure, you must release the requested information. ⁽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,

Heather Pendleton Ross

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

HPR/mcf

Ref: ID# 281295

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Mr. Vic Barrios

6910 Windy Cove Circle

Corpus Christi, Texas 78414

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. The city informs us that it withdraws the remaining exceptions to disclosure that it raised in its letter dated April 13, 2007.

2. Because the requestor seeks only the customer names, the rest of the submitted information is not responsive to this request for information. Therefore, this decision does not address the public availability of the remaining information.

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