January 6, 2012

Ms. Alexis G. Allen

Counsel for City of Lancaster

Nichols, Jackson, Dillard, Hager & Smith, L.L.P.

1800 Lincoln Plaza

500 North Akard

Dallas, Texas 75201

OR2012-00287

Dear Ms. Allen:

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# 441590.

The City of Lancaster (the "city"), which you represent, received a request for the transcript from a specified case number. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.103 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

Initially, we note the submitted information is a transcript from a public civil service hearing conducted by a hearing examiner. See Local Gov't Code §§ 143.010(c) (providing each commission proceeding shall be held in public), .057(f) (providing the hearing examiner has the same duties and powers as the commission); see also Downs v. City of Fort Worth, 692 S.W.2d 209 (Tex.App.--Fort Worth 1985, writ ref'd n.r.e.) (equating appeals to independent third party hearing examiner with appeals to civil service commission). Section 551.022 of the Open Meetings Act, chapter 551 of the Government Code, expressly provides that the "minutes and tape recordings of an open meeting are public records and shall be available for public inspection and copying on request to the governmental body's chief administrative officer or the officer's designee." Gov't Code § 551.022. Accordingly, the submitted transcript is a public record subject to section 551.022 of the Government Code. As a general rule, the exceptions to disclosure found in the Act and the common-law are not applicable to information that other statutes make public. See Open Records Decision Nos. 623 at 3 (1994), 544 (1990), 525 at 3 (1989), 378 (1983), 161 (1977), 146 (1976); see also Collins v. Tex Mall, L.P., 297 S.W.3d 409, 415 (Tex. App.-- Fort Worth 2009, no pet.) (statutory provision controls and preempts common law only when statute directly conflicts with common-law principle); CenterPoint Energy Houston Elec. LLC v. Harris County Toll Rd., 436 F.3d 541, 544 (5th Cir. 2006) (common law controls only where there is no conflicting or controlling statutory law). Accordingly, the city must release the submitted information to the requestor.

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,

Michelle R. Garza

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

MRG/em

Ref: ID# 441590

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. 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 those submitted to this office.

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