 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
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July 19, 2010 Mr. Warren M.S. Ernst Chief General Counsel Division Office of the City Attorney City of Dallas 1500 Marilla, Room 7BN Dallas, Texas 75201 OR2010-10699 Dear Mr. Ernst: 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# 387046. The City of Dallas (the "city") received a request for all e-mails between the city's audit manager and anyone within the city's police department since August 1, 2009. You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.116 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and 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 the requirements of Section 552.021. If information in an audit working paper is also maintained in another record, that other record is not excepted from the requirements of Section 552.021 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 records at issue consist of information prepared or maintained by the city auditor (the "auditor") in conducting an audit pursuant to chapter IX, section 3 of the Dallas City Charter and City Council Resolution Nos. 79-0723, 90-4027, and 05-3305. You explain that the auditor is appointed by the city council and is responsible for conducting audits. You state that the submitted information consists of audit working papers pertaining to performance audits and attestation engagements related to the city's police department. Based on your arguments and our review, we agree that the submitted information constitutes audit working papers, and thus, the city may withhold the submitted information under section 552.116 of the Government Code. 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, Jonathan Miles Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division JM/jb Ref: ID# 387046 Enc. Submitted documents c: Requestor (w/o enclosures)
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. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |