April 9, 2009

Mr. Ricardo Gonzalez

City Attorney

P.O. Box 1079

Edinburg, Texas 78540

OR2009-04732

Dear Mr. Gonzalez:

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# 339588.

The City of Edinburg (the "city") received a request for all information regarding two specified meetings of the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment ("board'). You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.103 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

We note that the submitted information consists of minutes of an open meeting of the city's board. Section 551.022 of the Open Meetings Act, chapter 551 of the Government Code, expressly provides that the "minutes and tape recordings of an open meeting are public records and shall be available for public inspection and copying on request to the governmental body's chief administrative officer or the officer's designee." Gov't Code § 551.022. The minutes of a public meeting of a governmental body are public records when entered, and public access may not be delayed until formal approval is obtained. Open Records Decision No. 225 (1979). In this instance, you state that the submitted information consists of "minutes that have been approved by the [board]." Accordingly, we conclude that section 551.022 is applicable to the submitted information. Further, although you raise section 552.103 of the Government Code as an exception to disclosure of this information, we note that as a general rule, the exceptions to disclosure found in the Act are not applicable to information that other statutes make public. See Open Records Decision Nos. 623 at 3 (1994), 525 at 3 (1989). Therefore, the city must release the submitted open meeting minutes 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,

Christina Alvarado

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

CA/rl

Ref: ID#339588

Enc. Submitted documents

cc: Requestor

(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.

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