February 23, 2011

Mr. Brandon S. Shelby

City Attorney

City of Sherman

P.O. Box 1106

Sherman, Texas 75091

OR2011-02665

Dear Mr. Shelby:

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# 410449.

The City of Sherman (the "city") received a request for eight categories of information related to the requestor's employment with the city, and three categories of information regarding a named individual, that individual's business, and the city. You state the city will release some of the requested information upon payment by the requestor. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.101 excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses laws that make criminal history record information ("CHRI") confidential. CHRI generated by the National Crime Information Center or by the Texas Crime Information Center is confidential under federal and state law. Title 28, part 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations governs the release of CHRI that states obtain from the federal government or other states. Open Records Decision No. 565 at 7 (1990). The federal regulations allow each state to follow its individual law with respect to CHRI it generates. Id. Section 411.083 of the Government Code deems confidential CHRI the Department of Public Safety ("DPS") maintains, except DPS may disseminate this information as provided in chapter 411, subchapter F of the Government Code. See Gov't Code § 411.083. Sections 411.083(b)(1) and 411.089(a) authorize a criminal justice agency to obtain CHRI; however, a criminal justice agency may not release CHRI except to another criminal justice agency for a criminal justice purpose. Id. § 411.089(b)(1). Other entities specified in chapter 411 of the Government Code are entitled to obtain CHRI from DPS or another criminal justice agency; however, those entities may not release CHRI except as provided by chapter 411. See generally id. §§ 411.090-.127. Similarly, any CHRI obtained from DPS or any other criminal justice agency must be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with Government Code chapter 411, subchapter F. Upon review, we have marked the portion of the submitted information that consists of CHRI. The city must withhold this marked information under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with chapter 411 of the Government Code. However, you do not explain, and the submitted information does not reflect, how any of the remaining information at issue consists of CHRI made confidential by chapter 411 of the Government Code. Consequently, we find the city may not withhold any of the remaining information under section 552.101 of the Government Code on that basis. As you raise no other exceptions to disclosure, the remaining information must be released. ⁽¹⁾

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,

Bob Davis

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

RSD/tf

Ref: ID# 410449

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. The submitted information contains social security numbers. Section 552.147(b) of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact a living person's social security number from public release without the necessity of requesting a decision from this office under the Act.  Gov't Code § 552.147(b). However, because section 552.147 is based on principles of privacy, the requestor has a right of access to her spouse's social security number. See id. § 552.023(b) (person or person's authorized representative has special right of access to information that would ordinarily be withheld to protect person's privacy interests). Additionally, because the information being released includes personal financial information to which the requestor has a right of access under section 552.023 of the Government Code, the city must again seek a ruling from this office if it receives another request for this information from another requestor.

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