June 4, 2012

Ms. Linda Pemberton

Paralegal

City of Killeen

P.O. Box 1329

Killeen, Texas 76540-1329

OR2012-08486

Dear Ms. Pemberton:

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# 459480 (City ID# W008039).

The City of Killeen (the "city") received a request for information pertaining to a specified incident. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the claimed exception and reviewed the submitted information.

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. This section encompasses the common-law right to privacy, which protects information if it (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, and (2) is not of legitimate concern to the public. Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). To demonstrate the applicability of common-law privacy, both prongs of this test must be met. Id. at 681-82. Common-law privacy protects the types of information held to be intimate or embarrassing in Industrial Foundation. See id. at 683 (information relating to sexual assault, pregnancy, mental or physical abuse in workplace, illegitimate children, psychiatric treatment of mental disorders, attempted suicide, and injuries to sexual organs). You assert portions of the submitted information should be withheld under section 552.101 on the basis of common-law privacy. However, the requestor has a right of access to information concerning himself that would otherwise be withheld to protect his privacy. See Gov't Code § 552.023(a) (person has special right of access, beyond right of general public, to information held by governmental body that relates to person and is protected from public disclosure by laws intended to protect person's privacy interests); Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individuals request information concerning themselves). Therefore, the city may not withhold from this requestor information concerning himself under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy. In addition, we find none of the remaining information is private, and it may not be withheld under section 552.101 on that basis. As you raise no additional exceptions to disclosure, the submitted information must be released to the requestor. ⁽¹⁾

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,

Misty Haberer Barham

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

MHB/som

Ref: ID# 459480

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. As noted, the requestor in this instance has a special right of access under section 552.023 of the Government Code to some of the information being released. Accordingly, if the city should receive another request for this information from a different requestor, the city must again request an opinion from this office.

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