April 9, 2012

Ms. Shirley Thomas

Acting General Counsel

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

P.O. Box 660163

Dallas, Texas 75266-0163

OR2012-04995

Dear Ms. Thomas:

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# 451617 (DART ORR 8822).

Dallas Area Rapid Transit ("DART") received a request for information pertaining to a specified accident. You state you have provided the requestor with some of the requested information. You claim some of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.102 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.102(a) of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information in a personnel file, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Gov't Code § 552.102(a). The Texas Supreme Court has held section 552.102(a) excepts from disclosure the dates of birth of state employees in the payroll database of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. See Tex. Comptroller of Pub. Accounts v. Attorney Gen. of Tex., 354 S.W.3d 336 (Tex. 2010). Thus, under Texas Comptroller, section 552.102(a) is applicable to the birth date of an employee of a governmental body in a record maintained by his or her employer in an employment context. In this instance, the birth date in question is contained in a DART police report. Thus, as it is not maintained in an employment context, we conclude DART may not withhold the birth date in question under section 552.102(a) of the Government Code.

We note the submitted police report contains driver's license information. Section 552.130 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure information related to a motor vehicle operator's license or driver's license or permit issued by an agency of this state or another state or country. ⁽¹⁾ See Gov't Code § 552.130(a)(1). DART must withhold the driver's license information we have marked under section 552.130 of the Government Code. The rest of the submitted 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,

Benjamin A. Bellomy

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

BAB/eb

Ref: ID# 451617

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. This office will raise mandatory exceptions to disclosure on behalf of a governmental body. See Gov't Code §§ 552.007, .352; Open Records Decision No. 674 at 3 n.4 (2001) (mandatory exceptions).

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