January 3, 2012

Ms. Laura Russell

Attorney

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

4200 Smith School Road

Austin, Texas 78744

OR2012-00032

Dear Ms. Russell:

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# 441317.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (the "department") received a request for information related to a specified incident. Although you take no position on whether the requested information is excepted from disclosure, you state release of this information may implicate third party interests. Accordingly, you have notified the interested third parties of the request for information and of their right to submit arguments to this office as to why the information should not be released. See Gov't Code § 552.304 (providing that interested party may submit comments stating why information should or should not be released). As of the date of this letter, we have not received comments from any of the third parties explaining why the requested information should not be released. We have reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.136(b) of the Government Code states that "[n]otwithstanding any other provision of [the Act], a credit card, debit card, charge card, or access device number that is collected, assembled, or maintained by or for a governmental body is confidential." ⁽¹⁾ Id. § 552.136(b). Accordingly, the department must withhold the bank account numbers and bank routing numbers we have marked pursuant to section 552.136 of the Government Code.

We note the information at issue contains a personal e-mail address. Section 552.137 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "an e-mail address of a member of the public that is provided for the purpose of communicating electronically with a governmental body," unless the member of the public consents to its release or the e-mail address is of a type specifically excluded by subsection (c). See id. § 552.137(a)-(c). The e-mail address listed in the information at issue is not specifically excluded by section 552.137(c). As such, this e-mail address, which we have marked, must be withheld under section 552.137, unless the owner of the address has affirmatively consented to its release. ⁽²⁾ See id. § 552.137(b).

In summary, the department must withhold the account numbers we have marked under section 552.136 of the Government Code. The department must also withhold the e-mail address we have marked under section 552.137 of the Government Code, unless the owner of the address affirmatively consents to its release. The remaining 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,

Vanessa Burgess

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

VB/dls

Ref: ID# 441317

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. The Office of the Attorney General will raise mandatory exceptions on behalf of a governmental body, but ordinarily will not raise other exceptions. See Open Records Decision Nos. 481 (1987), 480 (1987), 470 (1987).

2. Open Records Decision No. 684 (2009) serves as a previous determination to all governmental bodies authorizing them to withhold ten categories of information, including e-mail addresses of members of the public under section 552.137, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general decision.

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