January 3, 2012

Mr. John A. Kazen

For Laredo Independent School District

Kazen, Meurer & Pérez, L.L.P.

P.O. Box 6237

Laredo, Texas 78042-6237

OR2012-00033

Dear Mr. Kazen:

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# 440969.

The Laredo Independent School District (the "district"), which you represent, received a request for all employee grievances filed from August 1, 2011 to the date of the request. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. Additionally, 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 considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Id. § 552.101. Section 552.101 of the Government Code encompasses common-law privacy, which protects information that: (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, and (2) is not of legitimate concern to the public. See Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). To demonstrate the applicability of common-law privacy, both prongs of this test must be satisfied. Id. at 681-82. As this office has often stated, information pertaining to the work conduct and job performance of public employees is subject to a legitimate public interest and is, therefore, generally not protected from disclosure under common-law privacy. See, e.g., Open Records Decision Nos. 470 at 4 (1987) (public has legitimate interest in job qualifications and performance of public employees), 455 (1987) (public employee's job performance or abilities generally not protected by privacy), 444 at 3 (1986) (public has obvious interest in information concerning qualifications and performance of governmental employees), 423 at 2 (1984) (scope of public employee privacy is narrow), 405 at 2 (1983) (manner in which public employee's job was performed cannot be said to be of minimal public interest). Although you raise the issue of common-law privacy for the submitted information, we find you have failed to demonstrate how any of the submitted information is highly intimate or embarrassing and not of legitimate public interest. Therefore, none of the submitted information may be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy.

Section 552.117(a)(1) excepts from disclosure the home addresses and telephone numbers, emergency contact information, social security numbers, and family member information of current or former officials or employees of a governmental body who request that this information be kept confidential under section 552.024 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ Gov't Code § 552.117(a)(1). Whether a particular piece of information is protected by section 552.117(a)(1) must be determined at the time the request for information is made. See Open Records Decision No. 530 at 5 (1989). Thus, information may only be withheld under section 552.117(a)(1) on behalf of a current or former employee who made a request for confidentiality under section 552.024 prior to the date of the governmental body's receipt of the request for information. Therefore, to the extent the current or former employees whose information is at issue timely requested confidentiality under section 552.024, the district must withhold the information we have marked under section 552.117(a)(1) of the Government Code. To the extent the current or former employees whose information is at issue did not timely request confidentiality under section 552.024, the district may not withhold the marked information under section 552.117(a)(1). As no further exceptions are raised, 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# 440969

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

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

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