January 10, 2011

Ms. Cary Grace

Assistant City Attorney

City of Austin Law Department

P.O. Box 1088

Austin, Texas 78767-8828

OR2011-00448

Dear Ms. Grace:

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# 410168.

The City of Austin (the "city") received a request for information pertaining to the city's Invitation for Bids on the Waller Creek Tunnel Project - Main Tunnel and 4th Street Creek Side Inlet Facility -CIP ID# 6521.005, IFB# 6100 CLMC210. ⁽¹⁾ You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.104 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information. We have also received and considered comments from the requestor. See Gov't Code § 552.304 (providing that interested party may submit comments stating why information should or should not be released).

You inform us that the requested information was the subject of a previous request for information, in response to which this office issued Open Records Letter No. 2010-17595 (2010). In that ruling, we found that the city may withhold the requested information under section 552.104 of the Government Code. We conclude that, as we have no indication that the law, facts, and circumstances on which the prior ruling was based have changed, the city may continue to rely on that ruling as a previous determination and withhold the requested information in accordance with Open Records Letter No. 2010-17595. See Open Records Decision No. 673 (2001) (so long as law, facts, and circumstances on which prior ruling was based have not changed, first type of previous determination exists where requested information is precisely same information as was addressed in a prior attorney general ruling, ruling is addressed to same governmental body, and ruling concludes that information is or is not excepted from disclosure).

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,

Paige Lay

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

PL/vb

Ref: ID# 410168

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note the requestor informed us he narrowed his request on December 7, 2010. See Gov't Code § 552.222(b).

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