Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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Public
records
State personnel records becoming harder to get
As employee files become more valuable due to computer-aided
searches, officials make them more difficult to obtain
By Ellen Shearer
There is a growing move by state legislatures and judges to try to restrict
access to public employees’ records, particularly those of law enforcement
officials, and everything from home addresses to employees’ ages and gender
have been put off limits to the public.
"State officials are ingenious at finding ways to avoid providing information
to the public," said Paul McMasters of The Freedom Forum, adding that denying
records is both pervasive and persistent. "Privacy is being used increasingly
as a dodge for avoiding providing as much information to the public as
possible."
For example, McMasters said, Rhode Island officials recently withheld
information on funds spent on adult education courses for state workers,
saying disclosure would invade the employees’ privacy.
Last April, a bill to clarify Rhode Island’s Open Records Law, including
a provision that would have required disclosure of benefits earned by public
employees died in a House committee.
Providence Journal-Bulletin Metropolitan Managing Editor Tom Heslin
said access to information on public employees requires a balance between
the employee’s right to privacy and the public’s right to know how government
is administered.
"We have to be sensitive to issues of privacy," Heslin said. "Employees’
personnel issues should be part of their private portfolios. The fundamental
issue is what information the government is collecting. Once you start
giving ground to the notion that government is collecting information that
the public can’t see, then you’ve got to understand where that’s going
to take you."
The Iowa Freedom of Information Council is appealing a Cedar Rapids
district judge’s ruling that privacy interests may allow city employees’
pay records to be closed to public access. The judge cited as private the
records’ data on employees’ home addresses, ages and gender. The Gazette
in Cedar Rapids had requested the records to investigate when city workers
were taking sick leave and how much they were being paid.
Unions representing government workers are becoming a major force in
attempts to deny access to public employees’ records, according to Herb
Strentz, executive secretary of the Iowa council. He said the judge’s order
was the result of a motion filed by the unions that represent Cedar Rapids
city employees.
"Calling age and gender privacy issues is ridiculous," Strentz said.
Added Jane Kirtley, executive director of the Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press: "This is the kind of degree of craziness that gets
involved.
"Claims of privacy may be used opportunistically to close disciplinary
actions so one could draw a distinction between (disclosing) home addresses
and discipline," Kirtley said. "However, some jurisdictions require that
city employees must live in their district so even home addresses can tell
a lot."
She said many states have laws in place that close access to information
like employees’ home addresses. "One of the most critical areas has been
getting access to information regarding law enforcement officials because
there’s a perception they may be uniquely at risk."
Last fall, the Arkansas attorney general said employee records involving
job performance are private unless final action has been taken. Kirtley
noted that Kansas officials can go into executive sessions to consider
employee promotions.
In Tennessee, the editor and publisher of the Putnam Pit, an alternative
paper, filed suit in Nashville federal court to gain access to Internet
files on Cookeville, Tenn., city computers. In particular, he wants access
to so-called "cookie" files — files that serve as tracking devices — to
track if city computers are being used for browsing not connected with
employees’ jobs. Cookeville attorneys have said the cookie files are not
public records.
Kirtley said she believes the records are not private because
the employees are using government computers on government time. "It’s
simply a report on the sites and the time, not what you’re saying."
"People often think of personnel access issues as when was the employee
hired and how much is he paid, but it should also extend to telephones,
diaries and calendars."
While the public generally would believe in full access to pay grades
and names of government employees, there is much less unanimity in whether
there’s a need to have access to home addresses and other "peripheral"
issues like telephone use on the job, she said.
Heslin agreed.
"It’s a real quagmire," he said. "It comes back to the need for our
elected officials to come to grips with the issues of freedom of information.
The issues are becoming more and more important because we’re moving deeper
and deeper into the age of information."
Former Medill News Service Reporter Michael Hershaft contributed
to this story.
Shearer is co-director and editor of Medill News Service in Washington.
