Bill Text: TX SB944 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Engrossed

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relating to the public information law.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)

Status: (Passed) 2019-06-14 - Effective on 9/1/19 [SB944 Detail]

Download: Texas-2019-SB944-Engrossed.html

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By: Watson, Hinojosa S.B. No. 944
Zaffirini

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the public information law.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 552.002, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
(d) "Protected health information" as defined by Section
181.006, Health and Safety Code, is not public information and is
not subject to disclosure under this chapter.
SECTION 2. Section 552.003, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subdivision (7) to read as follows:
(7) "Temporary custodian" means an officer or employee
of a governmental body who, in the transaction of official
business, creates or receives public information that the officer
or employee has not provided to the officer for public information
of the governmental body or the officer's agent. The term includes
a former officer or employee of a governmental body who created or
received public information in the officer's or employee's official
capacity that has not been provided to the officer for public
information of the governmental body or the officer's agent.
SECTION 3. Section 552.004, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 552.004. PRESERVATION OF INFORMATION. (a) A
governmental body or, for information of an elective county office,
the elected county officer, may determine a time for which
information that is not currently in use will be preserved, subject
to Subsection (b) and to any applicable rule or law governing the
destruction and other disposition of state and local government
records or public information.
(b) A current or former officer or employee of a
governmental body who maintains public information on a privately
owned device shall:
(1) forward or transfer the public information to the
governmental body or a governmental body server to be preserved as
provided by Subsection (a); or
(2) preserve the public information in its original
form in a backup or archive and on the privately owned device for
the time described under Subsection (a).
(c) The provisions of Chapter 441 of this code and Title 6,
Local Government Code, governing the preservation, destruction, or
other disposition of records or public information apply to records
and public information held by a temporary custodian.
SECTION 4. Subchapter C, Chapter 552, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 552.159 to read as follows:
Sec. 552.159. EXCEPTION: CONFIDENTIALITY OF CERTAIN
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY OUT-OF-STATE HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
Information obtained by a governmental body that was provided by an
out-of-state health care provider in connection with a quality
management, peer review, or best practices program that the
out-of-state health care provider pays for is confidential and
excepted from the requirements of Section 552.021.
SECTION 5. Section 552.203, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 552.203. GENERAL DUTIES OF OFFICER FOR PUBLIC
INFORMATION. Each officer for public information, subject to
penalties provided in this chapter, shall:
(1) make public information available for public
inspection and copying;
(2) carefully protect public information from
deterioration, alteration, mutilation, loss, or unlawful removal;
[and]
(3) repair, renovate, or rebind public information as
necessary to maintain it properly; and
(4) make reasonable efforts to obtain public
information from a temporary custodian if:
(A) the information has been requested from the
governmental body;
(B) the officer for public information is aware
of facts sufficient to warrant a reasonable belief that the
temporary custodian has possession, custody, or control of the
information;
(C) the officer for public information is unable
to comply with the duties imposed by this chapter without obtaining
the information from the temporary custodian; and
(D) the temporary custodian has not provided the
information to the officer for public information or the officer's
agent.
SECTION 6. Subchapter E, Chapter 552, Government Code, is
amended by adding Sections 552.233, 552.234, and 552.235 to read as
follows:
Sec. 552.233. OWNERSHIP OF PUBLIC INFORMATION. (a) A
current or former officer or employee of a governmental body does
not have, by virtue of the officer's or employee's position or
former position, a personal or property right to public information
the officer or employee created or received while acting in an
official capacity.
(b) A temporary custodian with possession, custody, or
control of public information shall surrender or return the
information to the governmental body not later than the 10th day
after the date the officer for public information of the
governmental body or the officer's agent requests the temporary
custodian to surrender or return the information.
(c) A temporary custodian's failure to surrender or return
public information as required by Subsection (b) is grounds for
disciplinary action by the governmental body that employs the
temporary custodian or any other applicable penalties provided by
this chapter or other law.
(d) For purposes of the application of Subchapter G to
information surrendered or returned to a governmental body by a
temporary custodian under Subsection (b), the governmental body is
considered to receive the request for that information on the date
the information is surrendered or returned to the governmental
body.
Sec. 552.234. METHOD OF MAKING WRITTEN REQUEST FOR PUBLIC
INFORMATION. (a) A person may make a written request for public
information under this chapter only by delivering the request by
one of the following methods to the applicable officer for public
information or a person designated by that officer:
(1) United States mail;
(2) electronic mail;
(3) hand delivery; or
(4) any other appropriate method approved by the
governmental body, including:
(A) facsimile transmission; and
(B) electronic submission through the
governmental body's Internet website.
(b) For the purpose of Subsection (a)(4), a governmental
body is considered to have approved a method described by that
subdivision only if the governmental body includes a statement that
a request for public information may be made by that method on:
(1) the sign required to be displayed by the
governmental body under Section 552.205; or
(2) the governmental body's Internet website.
(c) A governmental body may designate one mailing address
and one electronic mail address for receiving written requests for
public information. The governmental body shall provide the
designated mailing address and electronic mailing address to any
person on request.
(d) A governmental body that posts the mailing address and
electronic mail address designated by the governmental body under
Subsection (c) on the governmental body's Internet website or that
prints those addresses on the sign required to be displayed by the
governmental body under Section 552.205 is not required to respond
to a written request for public information unless the request is
received:
(1) at one of those addresses;
(2) by hand delivery; or
(3) by a method described by Subsection (a)(4) that
has been approved by the governmental body.
Sec. 552.235. PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUEST FORM. (a) The
attorney general shall create a public information request form
that provides a requestor the option of excluding from a request
information that the governmental body determines is:
(1) confidential; or
(2) subject to an exception to disclosure that the
governmental body would assert if the information were subject to
the request.
(b) A governmental body that allows requestors to use the
form described by Subsection (a) and maintains an Internet website
shall post the form on its website.
SECTION 7. Section 552.301(c), Government Code, is
repealed.
SECTION 8. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
a request for public information received on or after the effective
date of this Act. A request for public information received before
the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect when
the request was received, and the former law is continued in effect
for that purpose.
SECTION 9. The attorney general shall create a public
information request form under Section 552.235(a), Government
Code, as added by this Act, not later than October 1, 2019.
SECTION 10. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.