Opinion ID: 895200
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Other Provisions of the Act

Text: The Legislature has clearly expressed an intent that governmental entities respond promptly to requests for public information. TEX. GOV'T CODE § 552.221(a). But, as the Attorney General has acknowledged, while the Act prohibits unreasonable delays in providing public information, [it also] recogniz[es] that the functions of the governmental body must be allowed to continue. The interests of one person requesting information under the Open Records Act [now Public Information Act] must be balanced with the interests of all the members of the public who rely on the functions of the governmental body in question. Tex. Att'y Gen. ORD-664, 3 (2000) (quoting Tex. Att'y Gen. ORD-467, 6 (1987)). And while the Act's fundamental purpose is to mandate the maximum disclosure of public information, it was also designed to simultaneously protect the personal privacy of individuals. House Comm. on State Affairs, Bill Analysis, Tex. H.B. 1718, 74th Leg., R.S. (1995); see, e.g., TEX. GOV'T CODE §§ 552.102, .109, .114, .115, .117. According to the House Research Organization, as of 2007, some Texas agencies received as many as 2,000 Public Information Act requests a year, House Research Org. Bill Analysis, Tex. H.B. 1497, House Committee Report, 80th Leg., R.S. (2007), and officials responding to those requests bear an onerous responsibility: if they disclose information that is confidential under the Act, they face criminal liability. TEX. GOV'T CODE § 552.352(a). [4] Moreover, public entities requesting an attorney general opinion must specify the exceptions that apply within the same ten-day period in which an opinion must be requested. Id. § 552.301(b). As the Attorney General has observed, the requirements to request an opinion and specify the applicable exceptions presuppose[] that the governmental body has identified the responsive information. Tex. Att'y Gen. ORD-664, at 4 fn.2. In light of those considerations, it is reasonable to assume that the Legislature intended that public entities would have a reasonably clear idea of the information requested before the ten-day deadline begins to run. Other provisions of the Act also weigh in favor of measuring the statutory deadline from the date an unclear or overbroad request has been clarified or narrowed. The Act permits governmental entities to impose charges for the cost of copying records, and, in certain circumstances, preparing them for inspection. TEX. GOV'T CODE §§ 552.261, .271. The governmental body must provide the person requesting information with a detailed statement itemizing all the estimated anticipated costs of complying with the request. Id. § 552.2615(a). If the person requesting the information does not respond to the estimate within ten business days by accepting the estimate, modifying their request, or filing a complaint with the Attorney General alleging that the governmental entity is overcharging, the request is considered withdrawn. Id. § 552.2615(b). A public information officer may require a deposit or payment of a bond if the estimated costs of preparing copies will exceed $100 (for bodies with more than fifteen employees) or $50 (for entities with fewer than sixteen employees). Id. § 552.263(a). If a deposit or bond is required, then, for purposes of section 552.301, the request is not considered received until the entity receives the deposit or bond. Id. 552.263(e). This provision belies the Attorney General's contention that section 552.301's ten-day deadline is absolute, and signals the Legislature's recognition of the potential burden responding to public information requests may place on governmental bodies. See Senate Research Ctr., Bill Analysis, Tex. S.B. 623, 79th Leg., R.S., 2005 (The time and resources used in the preparation of a brief to the attorney general are not reimbursed to the governmental entity, which creates a problem when a requestor is authorized to force a governmental entity to prepare briefs for the attorney general, before payments have been made.) None of these provisions specifically addresses the effect of a clarification request. [5] But they suggest that the Legislature envisioned an orderly process in which both the government and the requesting party will proceed with a reasonable idea of the burdens and costs each is likely to incur in connection with a request for public information. If a request is unclear or overbroad, the government's ability to identify applicable statutory exceptions to disclosure, or to prepare an accurate estimate of anticipated costs, is severely hampered; if the statutory ten-day period is merely tolled while the government awaits clarification, the government is left with little time to assess applicable exceptions or prepare any estimate of costs, a result that could leave both parties with less accurate information. While the Act requires governmental entities to respond promptly to public information requests, `promptly' means as soon as possible under the circumstances, that is, within a reasonable time, without delay. Id. § 552.221(a). If the circumstances are that a request is so unclear or overbroad that a governmental entity, acting in good faith, cannot understand what is requested, then it is consistent with the Act's structure to measure the time period in which an attorney general opinion must be requested from the date the request is clarified. The regulatory background against which section 552.222(b) was enacted reinforces our construction of the statute. More than a decade before the Legislature enacted the clarification statute, the Attorney General had issued Open Records Decision 333, a decision that has never been withdrawn or overruled. [6] In that decision, the City of Houston received a request from the Houston Chronicle for access to blotters maintained by all divisions of the Houston Police Department. Tex. Att'y Gen. ORD-333, 1 (1982). The newspaper relied on a decision holding that police blotters were public information, Houston Chronicle Publishing Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex.Civ. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ ref'd n.r.e., 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex.1976). Id. The City disagreed because, broadly read, the Chronicle's request included the identities of police informants. Id. The Chronicle and the City then engaged in a series of verbal and written exchanges in which the City sought to clarify the precise information the newspaper sought. Id. As a consequence of these efforts, more than ten days elapsed between the Chronicle's original request and the date the City requested an attorney general open records decision. Id. at 2. Because the original request was extremely broad, and referred only to `blotters', the Attorney General concluded that a letter from the Chronicle precisely identifying the information it sought was the operative date to trigger the ten-day period, even though the Act contained no provision allowing a governmental entity to attempt to clarify or narrow a request. Id. at 2-3. Presumptively, the Legislature was aware of this opinion when it enacted section 552.222(b) in 1995. See Tex. Dept. of Prot. & Reg. Servs. v. Mega Child Care, Inc., 145 S.W.3d 170, 176 (Tex.2004). While the opinion was not based on any explicit clarification provision, it did provide the Legislature with the view of the officer in charge of enforcing the Act that measuring a governmental body's response time from the date an unclear or overbroad information request is clarified would be consistent with the Act's overarching purposes. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Legislature anticipated that section 552.222(b) would have the same effect on the ten-day deadline. Construing the statute so that clarification of an unclear or overbroad information request resets the statutory ten-day deadline would not be contrary to the Legislature's mandate that the Act be construed in favor of granting a request. TEX. GOV'T CODE § 552.001(b). To the contrary, as we have observed, allowing a governmental entity ten days from the time an unclear or overbroad request is clarified only helps ensure that the response will be meaningful, providing the requestor with the information he or she actually wants. As the Attorney General has recognized, if a request is vague or overbroad, a governmental body cannot accurately identify and locate the requested items. Office of the Attorney General of Texas, PUBLIC INFORMATION 2008 HANDBOOK, ix. And, in sections 552.263 and 552.2615 of the Act, the Legislature itself has attempted to balance the policy of broad disclosure against the burden that may be placed upon scarce government resources in attempting to respond to extremely broad information requests. We agree with the Attorney General that a governmental entity should not be allowed to use requests for clarification in bad faith merely to delay production of public information. But in this case, it is undisputed that the City acted in good faith in asking Hill to clarify or narrow his broad request for public information. Once he did, the City promptly responded. There is nothing to indicate that the City was attempting to drag out the process by its request for clarification. Under these circumstances, the ten-day period for requesting an attorney general opinion ran from the date of Hill's response, and the City's request for an attorney general opinion was timely. Because we conclude that the ten-day period in this case ran from the date of Hill's clarification, we do not reach the City's argument that Hill's response asked for additional items that were not included in his original request, or its alternative argument that the attorney-client privilege is itself sufficiently compelling to overcome the public-information presumption that inheres when an attorney general's opinion is not timely requested.