 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
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March 4, 2008 Ms. Paula J. Alexander General Counsel Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County P.O. Box 61429 Houston, Texas 77208 OR2008-02923 Dear Ms. Alexander: 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# 303704. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County ("METRO") received a request for three categories of information pertaining to a specified Request for Proposals including: (1) a summary of the proposal evaluations; (2) "any instructions or other materials or memos" provided to the evaluators; and (3) "[a] copy or other summary of the proposed pricing by each entity that submitted a proposal[.]" You state that you will release information responsive to the first two categories of the request to the requestor. Although you raise no exceptions to disclosure on behalf of METRO, you contend that the submitted information may contain proprietary information subject to exception under section 552.110 of the Government Code. Accordingly, you notified Greater Houston Transportation Company and Laidlaw/First Transit of the request and of their right to submit arguments to this office explaining why this information should not be released. See Gov't Code § 552.305 (permitting interested third party to submit to attorney general reasons why requested information should not be released); see also Open Records Decision No. 542 (1990) (determining that statutory predecessor to section 552.305 permits governmental body to rely on interested third party to raise and explain applicability of exception in certain circumstances). We have considered the information at issue. The submitted information was the subject of a previous ruling from this office. In Open Records Letter No. 2008-02408 (2008), we concluded that the information we marked must be withheld in accordance with section 552.110 of the Government Code. We ordered the remaining information released. As we have no indication that the four criteria for a "previous determination" established by this office in Open Records Decision No. 673 (2001) have not been met, we conclude that METRO must continue to rely on our ruling in Open Records Letter No. 2008-02408. (1) See Gov't Code § 552.301(f). 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 file suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such a challenge, 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 challenge 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, Nancy E. Griffiths Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division NEG/jb Ref: ID# 303704 Enc. Submitted documents c: Ms. Karen Johnson P.O. Box 1654 Little Elm, Texas 75068 (w/o enclosures) Mr. Rudolph H. Bruhns Greater Houston Transportation Company 1406 Hays Houston, Texas 77009 (w/o enclosures) Ms. Lisa Gatwood Laidlaw/First Transit 705 Central Avenue, Suite 300 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (w/o enclosures)
1. The four criteria for this type of "previous determination" are 1) the records or information at issue
are precisely the same records or information that were previously submitted to this office pursuant to
section 552.301(e)(1)(D) of the Government Code; 2) the governmental body which received the request for
the records or information is the same governmental body that previously requested and received a ruling from
the attorney general; 3) the attorney general's prior ruling concluded that the precise records or information are
or are not excepted from disclosure under the Act; and 4) the law, facts, and circumstances on which the prior
attorney general ruling was based have not changed since the issuance of the ruling. See Open Records
Decision No. 673. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |