January 4, 2012

Ms. LeAnn M. Quinn

City Secretary

City of Cedar Park

600 North Bell Boulevard

Cedar Park, Texas 78613

OR2012-00164

Dear Ms. Quinn:

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# 441256 (Ref. No. 11-880).

The City of Cedar Park (the "city") received a request for specified appraisals from the 2009, 2010, and 2011 tax years. ⁽¹⁾ You state the city has made some of the responsive information available to the requestor. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.105 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽²⁾

Initially, we note the submitted information is subject to section 552.022 of the Government Code. Section 552.022 provides, in relevant part, as follows:

(a) Without limiting the amount or kind of information that is public information under this chapter, the following categories of information are public information and not excepted from required disclosure unless made confidential under this chapter or other law:

(1) a completed report, audit, evaluation, or investigation made of, for, or by a governmental body, except as provided by Section 552.108[.]

Gov't Code § 552.022(a)(1). The submitted information consists of a completed Real Estate Summary Appraisal Report that is subject to section 552.022(a)(1). You seek to withhold this information under section 552.105 of the Government Code. However, section 552.105 is discretionary in nature and does not make information confidential under the Act. See Act of May 30, 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., S.B. 602, §§ 3-21, 23-26, 28-37 (providing for "confidentiality" of information under specified exceptions); see also Open Records Decision Nos. 665 at 2 n.5 (2000) (discretionary exceptions generally), 564 (1990) (statutory predecessor to section 552.105 subject to waiver). Thus, the city may not withhold any of the submitted information under section 552.105.

However, some of the submitted information may be protected by copyright. A custodian of public records must comply with the copyright law and is not required to furnish copies of records that are copyrighted. Open Records Decision No. 180 at 3 (1977). A governmental body must allow inspection of copyrighted materials unless an exception applies to the information. Id.; see Open Records Decision No. 109 (1975). If a member of the public wishes to make copies of copyrighted materials, the person must do so unassisted by the governmental body. In making copies, the member of the public assumes the duty of compliance with the copyright law and the risk of a copyright infringement suit. Accordingly, as no further exceptions to disclosure of the submitted information are raised, it must be released, but any information protected by copyright may only be released in accordance with copyright law.

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,

Kenneth Leland Conyer

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

KLC/agn

Ref: ID# 441256

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. You inform us the city asked for and received clarification of the request. See Gov't Code § 552.222(b) (providing that if request for information is unclear, governmental body may ask requestor to clarify request); see also City of Dallas v. Abbott, 304 S.W.3d 380, 387 (Tex. 2010) (holding that when governmental entity, acting in good faith, requests clarification or narrowing of unclear or overbroad request for public information, ten-day period to request attorney general ruling is measured from date request is clarified or narrowed).

2. We assume 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 those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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