The City of Woonsocket ("City") sought this Department's advice concerning whether certain financial data contained in a proposal submitted by a contractor in response to an RFP was not a public record. It is this Department's practice/policy to issue Advisory Opinions only on pending matters. See Chrabaszcz v. Johnston School Department, PR 04-15. In this case, we were advised that the basis for the instant advisory request was "dormant," but the City still wanted the advisory opinion because "Woonsocket is about to seek a private contractor for a new water treatment plant project," so there was the "expectation" the same issue may arise again. Our determination of whether a particular document is exempt – or not – under the APRA requires a case-by-case analysis where we apply the APRA to the particular document at issue. Respectfully, to speculate on the nature of a future document at issue – and even the nature of any information that a future successful bidder may believe is exempt – would not be consistent with our precedent or the APRA. For these reasons, we declined to issue an Advisory Opinion.
