February 9, 2012

Ms. Kristin Kidd

Assistant District Attorney

County of Denton

P.O. Box 2850

Denton, Texas 76202

OR2012-02016

Dear Ms. Kidd:

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# 445695.

The Denton County Criminal District Attorney's Office (the "district attorney") received a request for a specified proposal. ⁽¹⁾ You state you have released some of the requested information. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101 and 552.110 of the Government Code. You also state the requested information may implicate the proprietary interests of a third party. Accordingly, you inform us, and provide documentation showing, you notified SunGard Public Sector-OSSI (SunGard) of the request and of the company's right to submit comments to this office as to why the requested information should not be released to the requestor. See Gov't Code § 552.305(d); see also Open Records Decision No. 542 (1990) (determining that statutory predecessor to section 552.305 permits governmental body to rely on interested third party to raise and explain applicability of exception to disclosure under the Act in certain circumstances). We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

You raise section 552.101 of the Government Code. Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. However, the district attorney has not directed our attention to any law, nor are we aware of any law, under which any of the submitted information is considered to be confidential for purposes of section 552.101 of the Government Code. See Open Records Decision Nos. 611 at 1 (1992) (common-law privacy), 600 at 4 (1992) (constitutional privacy), 478 at 2 (1987) (statutory confidentiality).

You also argue the submitted proposal is excepted from disclosure under section 552.110 of the Government Code. We note, however, section 552.110 is designed to protect the interests of third parties, such as SunGard, not the interests of a governmental body. Thus, we will not consider the district attorney's arguments under section 552.110, and the submitted proposal may be withheld under section 552.110 based only on arguments from SunGard. An interested third party is allowed ten business days after the date of its receipt of the governmental body's notice under section 552.305(d) to submit its reasons, if any, as to why information relating to that party should be withheld from public disclosure. See Gov't Code § 552.305(d)(2)(B). As of the date of this letter, we have not received comments from SunGard explaining why the submitted information should not be released. Therefore, we have no basis to conclude SunGard has protected proprietary interests in the information. See id. § 552.110; Open Records Decision Nos. 661 at 5-6 (1999) (to prevent disclosure of commercial or financial information, party must show by specific factual evidence, not conclusory or generalized allegations, that release of requested information would cause that party substantial competitive harm), 552 at 5 (1990) (party must establish prima facie case that information is trade secret), 542 at 3 (1990). Consequently, the district attorney may not withhold the submitted proposal on the basis of any proprietary interests SunGard may have in the information. Therefore, the district attorney must release the submitted information.

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,

Kathryn R. Mattingly

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

KRM/som

Ref: ID# 445695

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note the district attorney sought and received clarification from the requestor regarding the request. See Gov't Code § 552.222(b) (stating if information requested is unclear to governmental body or if large amount of information has been requested, governmental body may ask requestor to clarify or narrow request, but may not inquire into purpose for which information will be used).

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