February 11, 2010

Mr. Gregory Williams

Senior Staff Counsel

Metropolitan Transit Authority

P.O. Box 61429

Houston, Texas 77208-1429

OR2010-02137

Dear Mr. Williams:

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# 370045 (MTA No. 2010-0031).

The Metropolitan Transit Authority ("METRO") received a request for information submitted by the winner of a contract awarded in connection with a request for proposals for English to Spanish website conversion services. You take no position on the public availability of the requested information. You believe, however, that this request for information may implicate the interests of Translations.com. You inform us that Translations.com was notified of the request and of its right to submit arguments to this office as to why the requested information should not be released. ⁽¹⁾ We have reviewed the information you submitted.

An interested third party is allowed ten business days from the date of its receipt of the governmental body's notice under section 552.305 of the Government Code to submit its reasons, if any, as to why information relating to the third party should not be released. See Gov't Code § 552.305(d)(2)(B). As of the date of this decision, this office has received no correspondence from Translations.com. Thus, because Translations.com has not demonstrated that any of the information at issue is proprietary for the purposes of the Act, METRO may not withhold any of the submitted information on that basis. See id. § 552.110(a)-(b); Open Records Decision Nos. 552 at 5 (1990), 661 at 5-6 (1999). Therefore, as METRO does not claim an exception to disclosure, the submitted information must be released.

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, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

James W. Morris, III

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JWM/cc

Ref: ID# 370045

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Mr. Mark Melillo

Translations.com

Three Park Avenue 39^th Floor

New York, New York 10016

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. See Gov't Code § 552.305(d); Open Records Decision No. 542 (1990) (statutory predecessor to Gov't Code § 552.305 permitted governmental body to rely on interested third party to raise and explain applicability of exception to disclosure under certain circumstances).

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