----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "John McMillan" <mcmillanj@att.net>
To: "public.information@texasattorneygeneral.gov" <public.information@texasattorneygeneral.gov>, "OpenRecordsAssistance" <openrecordsassistance@oag.texas.gov>, "james.graham@oag.texas.gov" <james.graham@oag.texas.gov>, "anastasia.broadfoot@oag.texas.gov" <anastasia.broadfoot@oag.texas.gov>, "Josh Reno" <josh.reno@oag.texas.gov>, "jplumb@le.utah.gov" <jplumb@le.utah.gov>, "june.harden@oag.texas.gov" <june.harden@oag.texas.gov>, "sarah.eckhardt@senate.texas.gov" <sarah.eckhardt@senate.texas.gov>, "Univ of Utah Criminology Dir. Heather Melton" <heather.melton@soc.utah.edu>, "ACC Criminal Justice Dept. Chair Gerald Hildebrand" <gwhil@austincc.edu>, "Attorney General of Utah" <uag@utah.gov>, "james.turner@austintexas.gov" <james.turner@austintexas.gov>, "chris.leleaux@austintexas.gov" <chris.leleaux@austintexas.gov>, "michael.king@austintexas.gov" <michael.king@austintexas.gov>, "mike.brown@slcgov.com" <mike.brown@slcgov.com>, "mweichers@ch.utah.gov" <mweichers@ch.utah.gov>, "kirk.watson@austintexas.gov" <kirk.watson@austintexas.gov>, "letters@statesman.com" <letters@statesman.com>, "KXAN TV News Investigations" <reportit@kxan.com>, "Austin Chronicle Editors" <mail@austinchronicle.com>, "webteam@keyetv.com" <webteam@keyetv.com>, "news@dailytexanonline.com" <news@dailytexanonline.com>, "chad.atkinson@slcgov.com" <chad.atkinson@slcgov.com>, "leo.abila@slcgov.com" <leo.abila@slcgov.com>, "Deseret News 2022" <dnweb@deseretnews.com>, "Texas Tribune Editor in Chief Evan Smith" <esmith@texastribune.org>, "The Texas Tribune" <community@texastribune.org>, "jsweeney@sltrib.com" <jsweeney@sltrib.com>, "Molly Sween" <mollysween@weber.edu>, "donna.howard@house.texas.gov" <donna.howard@house.texas.gov>, "byu-info@byu.edu" <byu-info@byu.edu>, "Robert Kepple" <robert.kepple@tdcaa.org>, "Attorney General of Utah" <uag@utah.gov>, "lish.harris@utahtech.edu" <lish.harris@utahtech.edu>, "stephanie.hoffman@slcc.edu" <stephanie.hoffman@slcc.edu>, "State Bar of Texas Govt. Relations" <govt.relations@texasbar.com>, "communications@utahbar.org" <communications@utahbar.org>
Sent: Tue, Apr 30, 2024 at 1:37 PM
Subject: TXOAG Rulings; still no docs to me from TCDA re: crime case
April 30, 2024
Dear Very Honorable Government Officials, Law-Enforcement Officers, Criminologists, and Civic Leaders,
I was informed in writing yesterday about yet another legal ruling from the Attorney General of Texas
that relates to my still-unanswered November 30, 2023, public information request to the Austin-based Travis County District Attorney's Office.
That November 30 request from me had sought "'a copy of any and all documents on file with each applicable division or unit of your DA's Office that were each authored by someone other than me at any time since 9 a.m. January 1, 2021, and which each stated that I myself was or am victimized by a felony crime."
Texas Assistant Attorney General James Graham also this month issued a ruling legal letter I received which stated that the Travis County District Attorney's Office is legally required to release to me, John Kevin McMillan of Salt Lake City, Utah, several or numerous legal documents that are responsive to my November 30, 2023, Open Records Request to that DA's Office in Austin.
As of...April 29, 2024, neither the Travis County District Attorney's Office nor any official of the Travis County Attorney's Office in Austin has sent or mailed to me any legal document directly and specifically responsive to my November 30, 2023, Open Records Request to the Travis County DA.
The legal ruling letter from the Texas Attorney General's Office that I received yesterday was sent to me as an attachment to the following cover e-mail letter to me from Texas Assistant Attorney General June Harden:
______
From: "TEXAS AG Public Information" <texasag@govqa.us>
To: "mcmillanj@att.net" <mcmillanj@att.net>
Sent: Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 7:44 AM
Subject: [Records Center] Public Information Request :: R021160-020124
Attachments:
OR2024-013464.pdf
--- Please respond above this line ---
Please be advised that the Office of the Attorney General will withhold the remaining information in accordance with the attached ruling.
Sincerely,
June B. Harden
Assistant Attorney General
Assistant Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Attorney General
To monitor the progress or update this request please log into the Public Records Center
GovQA logo
_____
(The exact verbatim text of the above-cited attached April 16, 2024, legal ruling that I received this Monday, April 29, from the Attorney General of Texas state agency in Austin:)
April 16, 2024
Ms. June B. Harden
Assistant Attorney General
Assistant Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Attorney General
Post Office Box 12548
Austin, Texas 78711-2548
OR2024-013464
Dear Ms. Harden:
You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act, chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was originally received by the Open Records Division of this office and assigned ID# OR-24-009013-RR (OAG PIR No. R021160).
Preparation of this ruling has been assigned to the General Counsel Division of this office. The Office of the Attorney General (the “OAG”) received a request for information relating to a complaint filed with the OAG’s Open Records Division.
You state the OAG will release some of the requested information with redactions allowed by law. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.111 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information. Section 552.111 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure “[a]n interagency or intra(-)agency memorandum or letter that would not be available by law to a party in litigation with the agency[.]” Gov’t Code § 552.111. This exception encompasses the deliberative process privilege. See Open Records Decision No. 615 at 2 (1993). The purpose of section 552.111 is to protect advice, opinion, and recommendation in the decisional process and to encourage open and frank discussion in the deliberative process. See Austin v. City of San Antonio, 630 S.W.2d 391, 394 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1982, writ ref’d n.r.e.); Open Records Decision No. 538 at 1-2 (1990). In Open Records Decision No. 615, this office re-examined the statutory predecessor to section 552.111 in light of the decision in Texas Department of Public Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408 (Tex. App.—Austin 1992, no writ).
We determined section 552.111 excepts from disclosure only those internal communications that consist of advice, recommendations, opinions, and other material reflecting the policymaking processes of the governmental body. See ORD 615 at 5. A governmental body’s policymaking functions do not encompass routine internal administrative or personnel matters, and disclosure of information about such matters will not inhibit free discussion of policy issues among agency personnel. Id.; see also City of Garland v. Dallas Morning News, 22 S.W.3d 351 (Tex. 2000) (section 552.111 not applicable to personnel-related communications that did not involve policymaking). A governmental body’s policymaking functions do include administrative and personnel matters of broad scope that affect the governmental body’s policy mission. See Open Records Decision No. 631 at 3 (1995). Further, section 552.111 does not protect facts and written observations of facts and events that are severable from advice, opinions, and recommendations. Arlington Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Tex. Attorney Gen., 37 S.W.3d 152 (Tex. App.—Austin 2001, no pet.); see ORD 615 at 5. But if factual information is so inextricably intertwined with material involving advice, opinion, or recommendation as to make severance of the factual data impractical, the factual information also may be withheld under section 552.111. See Open Records Decision No. 313 at 3 (1982).
This office has also concluded a preliminary draft of a document that is intended for public release in its final form necessarily represents the drafter’s advice, opinion, and recommendation with regard to the form and content of the final document, so as to be excepted from disclosure under section 552.111. See Open Records Decision No. 559 at 2 (1990) (applying statutory predecessor). Section 552.111 protects factual information in the draft that also will be included in the final version of the document. See id. at 2-3. Thus, section 552.111 encompasses the entire contents, including comments, underlining, deletions, and proofreading marks, of a preliminary draft of a policymaking document that will be released to the public in its final form. See id. at 2.
You state the submitted information consists of “a draft enforcement letter that has been released to the public in final form.” You also explain that the draft was made “in furtherance of the OAG’s policy of maintaining uniformity in application, operation, and interpretation of the PIA.”
Based on your representations and our review, we find the OAG may withhold the submitted information under section 552.111 of the Government Code.
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 https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opengovernment/members-public/what-expect-after-ruling-issued or call the OAG’s Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839.
Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Public Information Act may be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the OAG, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.
Sincerely,
Anastasia Broadfoot
Assistant Attorney General
General Counsel Division
ABB/mo
Ref: ID# OR-24-009013-RR
c: Requestor
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