Opinion ID: 2812467
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: A Shared Common Purpose

Text: Finally, to ensure that the funds are received as a general or unrestricted payment to subsidize or underwrite the private entity’s activities, a third requirement should be that the funds be intended to promote a purpose, interest, or mission that the governmental and private entities share and would both pursue even in the absence of their contractual relationship. The mere existence of an “agency-type relationship” or a “common purpose or objective,” or even the fact that the service is one “traditionally provided by governmental bodies,” should not be sufficient by itself to meet this third requirement. See Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. No. GA-666; Kneeland, 850 F.2d at 228–29.12 It is not unusual for an arms-length services vendor to take on an agency-type 12 See also CareFlite, 418 S.W.3d at 142 (“[W]e have not found[] any authority, primary or persuasive, that stands for the proposition that, if a private entity and a governmental body share a common purpose or objective, the 38 role for its customer, or for a governmental agency to enter into an arms-length contract for government services that the agency itself traditionally provides, and contracting parties will ordinarily share at least the common objective of effectuating the obligations and purposes of their contract. In ORD-343, for example, the Amarillo Hospital District and its ambulance service provider shared the common goal of the contract: providing the people of Amarillo with emergency transportation to local hospitals. See Tex. Att’y Gen. ORD-343. But such relationships do not necessarily result in the governmental body “supporting” the private entity. Instead, I would hold that a supportive relationship exists when the parties share a true “identity of interests” that each of them has beyond any particular transaction or finite series of transactions between them. See Kneeland, 850 F.2d at 228–29 (“[T]here apparently is some common purpose or objective between the association and the universities, or they would not be drawn to each other, but there is no real identity of interest and neither may be considered the agent of the other.”). The volunteer fire department in JM-821 provides an example of this more extensive “identity of interests” relationship. See Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. No. JM-821. There, the private entity and the governmental entity each independently had the purpose of protecting citizens and property from fires and other hazards, and the governmental entity promoted the private entity’s pursuit of that purpose by providing “general support.” See id. I would thus distinguish between (1) a situation in which a private entity contractually undertakes a governmental entity’s objectives because the governmental entity agrees to pay for those services, and (2) a situation in which a private entity and a governmental entity that each private entity is automatically a governmental body for purposes of the [Act]. Neither are we aware of any like authority when an entity provides services traditionally provided by governmental bodies.”). 39 independently have the same purpose or interest, and thus an “identity of interest,” contractually agree to pursue that interest in cooperation and using public funding. See Kneeland, 850 F.2d at 228–29. For example, when a governmental entity hires a law firm to represent it in litigation, the firm and the government share interests and objectives specific to the firm’s representation of that entity, but they do not necessarily have an “identity of interests.” Although both the firm and the client may desire and jointly pursue the same outcome from the representation, the firm’s interest in achieving that outcome is transaction specific: the law firm takes on that goal because the client pays it to do so, and but for the client-attorney relationship, the law firm generally has no stake in the outcome of the litigation.13 In summary, then, I would clarify the Kneeland test and hold that a private entity (or a part, section, or portion thereof) is “supported in whole or in part by public funds,” and is thus a governmental body under the Public Information Act, if (1) the private entity receives public funds; (2) it does so not as compensation or consideration made in exchange for “specific goods” or “specific measurable services,” but as a general or unrestricted payment provided to subsidize or underwrite the private entity’s activities; and (3) the funds provided are intended to promote a purpose, interest, or mission that the governmental and private entities share and would each pursue even in the absence of their contractual relationship. 13 Contrary to the Court’s concern, this distinction would apply as effectively when the government contracts with a private firm to “provide more enduring and wide-ranging counsel” as it would when it hires a firm to handle a specific matter. See ante at ___. In either case, the third requirement (common purpose) typically would not be met because it is not part of the law firm’s mission or purpose to achieve the specific objectives that the government hires it to achieve, other than to fulfill its obligation to its client. But if the government paid funds to a special interest firm whose mission as a firm was to protect the environment, or promote a pro-life agenda, or increase health care for children, for example, this third requirement might be satisfied if the purpose of the government’s payment was to “support” the firm’s efforts to accomplish that mission. If the second requirement were also satisfied (i.e., the government paid the funds to subsidize or underwrite the firm’s efforts, rather than as consideration for specific, measurable services), the firm would be a governmental body under the Act. 40