April 5, 2012

Ms. Tiffany N. Evans

Assistant City Attorney

City of Houston

P.O. Box 368

Houston, Texas 77001-0368

OR2012-04936

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# 449806 (GC No. 19280).

The City of Houston (the "city") received a request for information pertaining to payments made to the requestor's client in relation to workers compensation injuries. You claim the requested 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⁾

We note the submitted information consists of a summary of the check payments made by the city to the requestor's client. This information is subject to section 552.022(a)(3) of the Government Code, which provides that "information in an account, voucher, or contract relating to the receipt or expenditure of public or other funds by a governmental body" is subject to required public disclosure unless it is made confidential under the Act or other law. See Gov't Code § 552.022(a)(3). Although you raise section 552.103 of the Government Code for this information, section 552.103 is a discretionary exception to disclosure and does not make information confidential under the Act. See id. § 552.007; Dallas Area Rapid Transit v. Dallas Morning News, 4 S.W.3d 469, 475-76 (Tex. App.--Dallas 1999, no pet.) (governmental body may waive section 552.103); Open Records Decision Nos. 665 at 2 n.5 (discretionary exceptions generally), 663 (1999) (governmental body may waive section 552.103). Therefore, the city may not withhold the submitted information under section 552.103 of the Government Code. As you raise no other exceptions to disclosure of this information, the city must release the submitted information pursuant to section 552.022(a)(3) of the Government Code.

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,

Jennifer Luttrall

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JL/som

Ref: ID# 449806

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume that 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 that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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