April 25, 2011

Ms. Zeena Angadicheril

Office of General Counsel

The University of Texas System

201 West Seventh Street

Austin, Texas 78701

OR2011-05608

Dear Ms. Angadicheril:

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# 415295 (OGC# 135291).

The University of Texas at Austin (the "university") received a request for the following: 1) the new salaries of the university's football staff; 2) the new contracts for the university's athletic director and the women's athletic director; and 3) any and all correspondence involving university employees regarding a named employee's leave of absence, as well as any findings from an investigation filed against the named employee and any financial settlement involving the university and the named employee. You state you will release information pertaining to categories one and two of the request. You state some of the submitted information has been redacted pursuant to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA"), section 1232g of title 20 of the United States Code. ⁽¹⁾ You also state that, as permitted by section 552.024(c) of the Government Code, you will redact information subject to section 552.117 of the Government Code. ⁽²⁾ In addition, you state you will redact personal e-mail addresses in accordance with Open Records Letter No. 684 (2009). ⁽³⁾ You claim portions of the submitted information are the subject of prior rulings issued by this office. Additionally, you claim that some of the requested information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101, 552.107, and 552.111 of the Government Code. We have considered your arguments and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽⁴⁾

Initially, we note you have marked portions of the submitted information as being non-responsive to the request for information. This decision does not address the public availability of the non-responsive information, and that information need not be released.

You state portions of the submitted information were the subject of previous requests for information, as a result of which this office issued Open Records Letter Nos. 2011-00356 (2011), 2011-00418 (2011), 2011-00488 (2011), 2011-00661 (2011), and 2011-04036 (2011). As we have no indication that the law, facts, or circumstances on which the prior rulings were based have changed, we conclude the university must continue to rely on these rulings as previous determinations and withhold or release any previously ruled upon information in accordance with the prior rulings. 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). Next, we will consider your arguments for the information not subject to the prior rulings.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from public disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This exception encompasses information that other statutes make confidential. You claim section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 51.971 of the Education Code, which provides in part:

(a) In this section:

(1) "Compliance program" means a process to assess and ensure compliance by the officers and employees of an institution of higher education with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and policies, including matters of:

(A) ethics and standards of conduct;

(B) financial reporting;

(C) internal accounting controls; or

(D) auditing.

. . .

(e) Information produced in a compliance program investigation the release of which would interfere with an ongoing compliance investigation is excepted from disclosure under [the Act].

Educ. Code § 51.971(a)(1), (e). Section 51.971 defines a compliance program as a process to assess and ensure compliance by officers and employees of an institution of higher education. Id. § 51.971(a)(1). You state the information you have marked pertains to a complaint and subsequent investigation pertaining to "ethical questions and standards of conduct relating to employees of the university." Based on your representations and our review, we agree the information you have marked pertains to the university's compliance program for purposes of section 51.971. See id. § 51.971(a). You inform this office the information you have marked pertains to an ongoing compliance investigation by the university. You further assert release of the information at this time would interfere with the investigation. Accordingly, we conclude the university must withhold the information you have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 51.971(e) of the Education Code. ⁽⁵⁾

In summary, the university must continue to rely on Open Records Letter Nos. 2011-00356, 2011-00418, 2011-00488, 2011-00661, and 2011-04036 as previous determinations and withhold or release the previously ruled upon information in accordance with those rulings. The university must withhold the information you have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 51.971(e) of the Education 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,

Vanessa Burgess

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

VB/dls

Ref: ID# 415295

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. The United States Department of Education Family Policy Compliance Office (the "DOE") has informed this office that FERPA does not permit state and local educational authorities to disclose to this office, without parental consent, unredacted, personally identifiable information contained in education records for the purpose of our review in the open records ruling process under the Act. The DOE has determined that FERPA determinations must be made by the educational authority in possession of the education records. We have posted a copy of the letter from the DOE to this office on the Attorney General's website: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/20060725usdoe.pdf.

2. Section 552.117 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure the home addresses and telephone numbers, social security numbers, and family member information of current or former officials or employees of a governmental body. Section 552.024 of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to withhold information subject to section 552.117 without requesting a decision from this office if the employee or official or former employee or official chooses not to allow public access to the information. See Gov't Code §§ 552.117, .024(c).

3. This office issued Open Records Decision No. 684, a previous determination to all governmental bodies, which authorizes the withholding of ten categories of information, including personal e-mail addresses under section 552.137 of the Government Code, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general decision.

4. 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.

5. As our ruling is dispositive, we need not address your remaining arguments against disclosure of this information.

POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US
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