January 27, 2009

Ms. Susan K. Bohn

General Counsel

Lake Travis Independent School District

3322 Ranch Road 620 South

Austin, Texas 78738

OR2009-01049

Dear Ms. Bohn:

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# 333173.

The Lake Travis Independent School District (the "district") received a request for five categories of information, including 1) the current depository contract with the district's banking institution, 2) the bid response from that banking institution, 3) the tally sheet or comparison sheet used when selecting this banking institution, 4) the current merchant card contract, and 5) the current purchase card contract. ⁽¹⁾ You state that the district will release some of the requested information to the requestor. You claim that a portion of the requested information is excepted under section 552.136 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Initially, you acknowledge, and we agree, that the department failed to comply with section 552.301 of the Government Code in seeking an open records decision from this office. A governmental body's failure to comply with the 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 Gov't Code § 552.302; Hancock v. State Bd. of Ins., 797 S.W.2d 379, 381-82 (Tex. App.--Austin 1990, no writ) (governmental body must make compelling demonstration to overcome presumption of openness pursuant to statutory predecessor to section 552.302); Open Records Decision No. 319 (1982). The presumption that information is public under section 552.302 can generally be overcome by demonstrating that the information is confidential by law or third-party interests are at stake. See Open Records Decision Nos. 630 at 3 (1994), 325 at 2 (1982). Because section 552.136 of the Government Code may provide a compelling reason to overcome the presumption of openness, we will consider whether any of the submitted information must be withheld based on this exception.

Section 552.136(b) provides that "[n]otwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a credit card, debit card, charge card, or access device number that is collected, assembled, or maintained by or for a governmental body is confidential." Accordingly, the district must withhold the account number and routing number that we have marked under section 552.136 of the Government Code. The remaining information must be released to the requestor.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information 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 information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497.

Sincerely,

Adam Leiber

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

ACL/jb

Ref: ID# 333173

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. As you have not submitted the request for information, we take our description from your brief.

POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US
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