 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
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March 11, 2008 Mr. W. Montgomery Meitler Assistant Counsel Office of Legal Services Texas Education Agency 1701 North Congress Avenue Austin, Texas 78701-1494 OR2008-03284 Dear Mr. Meitler: 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# 304446. The Texas Education Agency (the "agency") received a request for all documentation from SCIT or CIT, over the last four years, regarding three named Austin Independent School District campuses. You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.116 and 552.137 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and have reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. (1) Section 552.116 of the Government Code provides as follows: (a) An audit working paper of an audit of the state auditor or the auditor of a state agency, an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, a county, a municipality, a school district, or a joint board operating under Section 22.074, Transportation Code, including any audit relating to the criminal history background check of a public school employee, is excepted from [required public disclosure]. If information in an audit working paper is also maintained in another record, that other record is not excepted from [public disclosure] by this section. (b) In this section: (1) "Audit" means an audit authorized or required by a statute of this state or the United States, the charter or an ordinance of a municipality, an order of the commissioners court of a county, a resolution or other action of a board of trustees of a school district, including an audit by the district relating to the criminal history background check of a public school employee, or a resolution or other action of a joint board described by Subsection (a) and includes an investigation. (2) "Audit working paper" includes all information, documentary or otherwise, prepared or maintained in conducting an audit or preparing an audit report, including: (A) intra-agency and interagency communications; and (B) drafts of the audit report or portions of those drafts. Gov't Code § 552.116. You state that the submitted documents were prepared by a campus intervention team that was "conducting a comprehensive on-site evaluation of the campus to determine the cause for the campus's low performance, recommending actions to address the low performance, assisting in the development of a school improvement plan for student achievement, and assisting the commissioner in monitoring the progress of the campus in implementing the school improvement plan." You inform us that the evaluations are authorized by sections 39.1322 and 39.1323 of the Education Code. See Educ. Code §§ 39.1322, .1323 (defining scope and duties of a campus intervention team). Based on your representations and our review of the information at issue, we conclude that the submitted information consists of audit working papers that the agency may withhold under section 552.116 of the Government Code. (2) Finally, you ask this office to issue a previous determination permitting the agency to withhold e-mail addresses of members of the public under section 552.137 of the Government Code. We decline to issue such a previous determination at this time. Accordingly, 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, Benjamin A. Diener Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division BAD/jb Ref: ID# 304446 Enc. Submitted documents c: Ms. Kimberly Reeves c/o W. Montgomery Meitler Texas Education Agency 1701 North Congress Avenue Austin, Texas 78701-1494 (w/o enclosures)
1. This letter ruling assumes that the submitted representative sample of information is truly
representative of the requested information as a whole. This ruling neither reaches nor authorizes the agency
to withhold any information that is substantially different from the submitted information. See Gov't Code
§§ 552.301(e)(1)(D), .302; Open Records Decision Nos. 499 at 6 (1988), 497 at 4 (1988).
As our ruling is dispositive, we do not address your other arguments against disclosure. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |