By: Capriglione H.B. No. 2191
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 552.003, 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 2. 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 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 3. Subchapter C, Chapter 552, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 552.159 to read as follows:
Sec. 552.159. EXCEPTION: CONFIDENTIALITY OF CERTAIN
HEALTHCARE INFORMATION. A record of the identity, diagnosis,
evaluation, or treatment of a patient by a physician or hospital
that is created or maintained by a physician or hospital is
confidential and excepted from the requirements of Section 552.021.
SECTION 4. 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 5. 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. DESIGNATED ELECTRONIC MAIL AND MAILING
ADDRESSES FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUESTS. A governmental body may
designate one electronic mail address and one mailing address for
receiving written requests for public information. If an inquiry
is made to a governmental body regarding the procedures for
requesting public information, the governmental body shall provide
the designated electronic mail and mailing addresses. A
governmental body that posts the designated electronic mail and
mailing addresses on the governmental body's Internet website is
not required to respond to a written request for public information
that is not received at one of those addresses.
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 6. Section 552.301(c), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(c) For purposes of this subchapter and subject to Section
552.234, a written request includes a request made in writing that
is sent to the officer for public information, or the person
designated by that officer, by electronic mail or facsimile
transmission.
SECTION 7. 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 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. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.