May 17, 2012

Ms. Tiffany N. Evans

Assistant City Attorney

City of Houston

P.O. Box 368

Houston, Texas 77001-0368

OR2012-07429

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# 454230 (Houston GC No. 19411).

The City of Houston (the "city") received a request for all offers and proposals, evaluation notes and findings of all evaluators, and formal and informal protest files related to a specified request for proposals. You state some of the requested information will be released. You state that, although the city takes no position with respect to the remaining information, its release may implicate the proprietary interests of third parties. Accordingly, you state, and provide documentation demonstrating, the city notified the third parties of the request for information and of their right to submit arguments stating why their information should not be released. ⁽¹⁾ See Gov't Code § 552.305 (permitting interested third party to submit to attorney general reasons why requested information should not be released); Open Records Decision No. 542 (1990) (determining statutory predecessor to section 552.305 permits governmental body to rely on interested third party to raise and explain applicability of exception in certain circumstances). We have received comments from TDI and a representative of HCG. We have considered the submitted arguments and reviewed the submitted information.

We note the submitted information was the subject of two previous requests for information, in response to which this office issued Open Records Letter Nos. 2012-04719 (2012) and 2012-05927 (2012). In Open Records Letter No. 2012-04719 we determined the city must withhold the information we marked in TDI's proposal under sections 552.110 and 552.136 of the Government Code, and release the remaining information at issue. In Open Records Letter No. 2012-05927 we determined the city must withhold the information we marked in HCG's proposal under section 552.110, and must release the remaining information in accordance with any applicable copyright law. As we have no indication the law, facts, and circumstances on which the prior rulings were based have changed, the city must continue to rely on Open Records Letter Nos. 2012-04719 and 2012-05927 as previous determinations and withhold or release the information at issue in accordance with those rulings. See Open Records Decision No. 673 at 6-7 (2001) (so long as law, facts, and circumstances on which prior ruling was based have not changed, first type of previous determination exists where requested information is precisely same information as was addressed in prior attorney general ruling, ruling is addressed to same governmental body, and ruling concludes that information is or is not excepted from disclosure.)

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,

Kristi L. Wilkins

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

KLW/ag

Ref: ID# 454230

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Mr. William Parten

TDIndustries, Inc.

13850 Diplomat Drive

Dallas, Texas 75234

(w/o enclosures)

Mr. Sean D. Forbes

For Hallmark Group

Neel, Hooper & Banes, P.C.

1800 West Loop South, Suite 1750

Houston, Texas 77027

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. The third parties notified pursuant to section 552.305 are Hallmark Capital Group, L.L.C. ("HCG") and TDIndustries, Inc. ("TDI").

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