FBISD ORDERED BY TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL TO TURN OVER REQUESTED "GLOBAL SCIENCE CENTER" DOCUMENTS!After numerous requests over several months and before public hearings by taxpayers of FBISD and many formal requests for all documents and communications surrounding the $27 million dollar taxpayer funded controversial "Global Taj Mahal" and continued district attempts to block these requests (by the superintendent) until after the 7-0 school board vote in June,
the Texas Attorney General has ordered the school district to comply.The following order from the AG's office is reprinted below in it's entirety (
Feldman, Rogers, Morris & Glover, LLP are one of the legal vendors for the school district, which we pay our taxes to regarding issues like the one below. How much did they bill the district to help with-hold this information from the public until after the school board voted on this project?):
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
GREG ABBOTT
July 20, 2009
Mr. David M. Feldman
Feldman, Rogers, Morris & Grover, L.L.P.
5718 Westtheimer Road, Suite 1200
Houston, Texas 77057
0R2009-09996
Dear Mr. Feldman:
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# 349446.
The Fort Bend Independent School District (the "district"), which you represent, received a request for nine categories of information pertaining to a specified district-created committee. You state the district has released most of the responsive information. You claim that the marked e-mail addresses within the submitted information are excepted from disclosure under section 552.137 of the Government Code. l. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. 2. We have also considered comments received from the requestor. See Gov't Code § 552.304 (providing that interested party may submit comments stating why information should or should not be
released).
The district initially raised sections 552.1 0 1, 552.111, and 552.117 of the Government Code but has since withdrawn its claims under those exceptions. 2. We assume that the "representative sample" of records submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988),497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach, and therefore does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records to the extent that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this
office.
Mr. David M. Feldman - Page 2
Section 552.137 excepts from disclosure "an e-mail address of a member of the public that is provided for the purpose of communicating electronically with a governmental body" unless the member of the public consents to its release or the e-mail address is of a type specifically excluded by subsection (c). See Gov't Code § 552. 137(a)-(c). Subsection (c)(l) states that subsection (a) does not apply to an e-mail address "provided to a governmental body by a person who has a contractual relationship with the govemmental body or by the contractor's agent" and subsection (c)(2) states that subsection (a) does not apply to an e-mail address "provided to a govemmental body by a vendor who seeks to contract with the govemmental body or by the vendor's agent[.]" Id. § 552.137(c)(1), (2). You inform us that the owners of the e-mail addresses at issue have not consented to their release.
Accordingly, the district must withhold the e-mail addresses you marked under section 552.137, except to the extent that any such address is the address of a person or agent of a person who has or is seeking a contractual relationship with the district. The remaining 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 govemmental body and of the requestor. For more information conceming 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 Attomey General's Open Govemment Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions conceming the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attomey General at (512) 475-2497.
Sincerely,
Bob Davis
Assistant Attomey General
Open Records Division
RSD/cc
Ref: ID# 349446
Ene. Submitted documents
cc: Requestor
(w/o enclosures)
FBW comment: The only question now is will the district continue to with-hold this lawfully requested information and potentially invoke further sanctions from the state?
