Attorney General's Opinion 1983-84 #446

VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. FINANCIAL DATA. DEFINITIONS. FINANCIAL DATA COLLECTED FROM RETAIL ESTABLISHMENT BY STATE INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING FOR PURPOSE OF BUSINESS RESEARCH OR PUBLICATION NOT EXEMPT FROM ACT

January 27, 1984

840127

The Honorable George W. Grayson

Member, House of Delegates

83-84 446

This is in response to your recent request for my opinion as to whether financial data collected from retail establishments by a state institution of higher learning, for the purpose of business research or publication in the form of a business index or a business report would be exempt from the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, 2.1-340 through 2.1-346.1 of the Code of Virginia (the "Act"). You referred to gross sales as an example of the data collected.

Section 2.1-341 defines "official records" for purposes of the Act as: "all written or printed books, papers, letters, documents...reports or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, prepared, owned, or in the possession of a public body or any employee or officer of a public entity in the transaction of public business."

If the financial data which a state institution of higher learning would be collecting from retail establishments is collected and held in the possession of the institution in the transaction of public business, it would be considered "official records" for purposes of the Act. Section 2.1-342 provides that all official records shall be open to public inspection, unless otherwise specifically provided by law. Therefore, unless an exception is provided by law, the financial data here in question is subject to the disclosure provision of 2.1-342.

Section 2.1-342(b)(i6) exempts "data, records or information of a proprietary nature, other than financial or administrative, produced or collected by or for faculty or staff of state institutions of higher learning" (emphasis added) in certain instances. I am not certain that gross sales data are "of a proprietary nature." Even if they are so categorized, the data would not fall within the exemption if they are "financial" in nature.

Based upon your description of the data as "financial," I must conclude that the data would not be exempt from the disclosure provisions of the Act.