December 6, 2010

Ms. Helen Valkavich

Assistant City Attorney

City of San Antonio

P.O. Box 839966

San Antonio, Texas 78283-3966

OR2010-18205

Dear Ms. Valkavich:

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# 402291 (COSA File No. 10-1521).

The City of San Antonio (the "city") received a request for (1) any wage/salary and benefit records pertaining to salary market surveys, compensation surveys, and total compensation surveys performed by or for the city during a specified time period and (2) a specified market survey performed by or for the City of Austin. You claim the submitted market survey is excepted from disclosure under section 552.111 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Initially, we note you have submitted only the specified City of Austin market survey. To the extent information responsive to the remainder of the request existed on the date the city received the request, we assume you have released it. If you have not released any such information, you must do so at this time. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(a), .302; see also Open Records Decision No. 664 (2000) (if governmental body concludes that no exceptions apply to requested information, it must release information as soon as possible).

You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under the deliberative process privilege encompassed by section 552.111 of the Government Code. See Open Records Decision No. 615 at 2 (1993). The purpose of section 552.111 is to protect advice, opinion, and recommendation in the decisional process and to encourage open and frank discussion in the deliberative process. See Austin v. City of San Antonio, 630 S.W.2d 391, 394 (Tex. App.--San Antonio 1982, no writ); Open Records Decision No. 538 at 1-2 (1990).

In Open Records Decision No. 615, this office re-examined the statutory predecessor to section 552.111 in light of the decision in Texas Department of Public Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ). We determined section 552.111 excepts from disclosure only those internal communications consisting of advice, recommendations, opinions, and other material reflecting the policymaking processes of the governmental body. See ORD 615 at 5. A governmental body's policymaking functions do not encompass routine internal administrative or personnel matters, and disclosure of information about such matters will not inhibit free discussion of policy issues among agency personnel. Id.; see also City of Garland v. Dallas Morning News, 22 S.W.3d 351 (Tex. 2000) (section 552.111 not applicable to personnel-related communications that did not involve policymaking). A governmental body's policymaking functions do include administrative and personnel matters of broad scope that affect the governmental body's policy mission. See Open Records Decision No. 631 at 3 (1995). Additionally, section 552.111 does not generally except from disclosure purely factual information severable from the opinion portions of internal memoranda. Arlington Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Tex. Attorney Gen., 37 S.W.3d 152 (Tex. App.--Austin 2001, no pet.); ORD 615 at 4-5.

You contend the information was obtained as part of the city's current analysis of its executive position compensation policy. Based on this representation, we find you have demonstrated how the information concerns administrative and personnel matters of broad scope that affect the city's policy mission. The submitted information consists of the results of a market survey regarding executive position wages conducted by the City of Austin for its own purposes. We note the submitted information does not contain any advice, recommendations, or opinions. Furthermore, you have not explained, or otherwise demonstrated, how the survey reveals the city's advice, recommendations, or opinions on a policymaking issue. Consequently, we find you have failed to demonstrate the applicability of the deliberative process privilege to the submitted information and the information may not be withheld under section 552.111 of the Government Code. As you have not claimed any other exceptions 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,

Leah B. Wingerson

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

LBW/dls

Ref: ID# 402291

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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