January 25, 2012

Ms. Tiffany N. Evans

Assistant City Attorney

City of Houston

P.O. Box 368

Houston, Texas 77001-0368

OR2012-01207

Dear Ms. Evans:

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# 443584 (GC No. 19102).

The City of Houston (the "city") received a request for the reviewers' comments regarding the requestor's company's grant proposal pertaining to the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program. You claim the submitted evaluation comments are excepted from disclosure under section 552.104 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.104 of the Government Code protects from required public disclosure "information that, if released, would give advantage to a competitor or bidder." Gov't Code § 552.104(a). The purpose of section 552.104 is to protect the purchasing interests of a governmental body in competitive bidding situations where the governmental body wishes to withhold information in order to obtain more favorable offers. See Open Records Decision No. 592 (1991). Section 552.104 protects information from disclosure if the governmental body demonstrates potential harm to its interests in a particular competitive situation. See Open Records Decision No. 463 (1987). Generally, section 552.104 does not except bids from disclosure after bidding is completed and the contract has been executed. See Open Records Decision No. 541 (1990).

Although you state a finalist has been chosen for the grant at issue, you state a contract has not yet been finalized. You explain that if the contract is not finalized, the city would need to issue a new request for proposals. You state releasing the submitted information could compromise the quality of proposals subsequently submitted because new proposers would have the advantage of knowing the exact manner in which one of the previous submissions was evaluated. Based on your representations, we conclude the city may withhold the submitted proposal evaluation comments under section 552.104 of the Government Code. See Open Records Decision No. 170 at 2 (1977) (release of bids while negotiation of proposed contract is in progress would necessarily result in an advantage to certain bidders at expense of others and could be detrimental to public interest in contract under negotiation).

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,

Tamara H. Holland

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

THH/dls

Ref: ID# 443584

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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