Sunshine Law

mar8267

I need help from someone else in the Public Sector. Would a report that lists individual employee names, sick leave balances & sick leave used YTD be an open record? I'm in Missouri and all I've been able to find online is that somewhere in Iowa the court ruled that this type of report would be open.

AnneHa

This law is state-driven. I have a very nice (and very thick) publication from the Ohio Attorney General that outlines public record requirements in Ohio. It's not always clear, but it is a good place to start. For example, the definition of a 'public record' is given followed by the statement that "determination of whether a specific item constitutes a "record" will depend on the facts and circumstances surrounding the particular item requested."

I usually contact our statuatory attorney when I'm not sure.

Anne in Ohio

Whirlwind

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-29-06 AT 04:08PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Like Anne, where I'm located (Texas) the State Attorney General's Office (AGO) administers the Public Records Act (formerly known as the Open Records Act). They provide guidance, a handbook, and rulings on disputes or exception requests about what falls under the law. All rulings are available online and searchable by topic. I recommend you contact your state's AGO to see if they provide the same type of support with respect to your sunshine law.

The information you mentioned about leave use would be considered a publicly accessible record here. Nevertheless, if any request is not completely cut-and-dried, I run it by our attorney.

DB

Our City Clerk has a reference to the IL State law that she goes to anytime we have a question about what personal information do we have to release. Find your law and read it or go to your "legal" people and ask them.

Good luck.

WT

Rules will vary from state to state. Look at yours in the area of items identified with individual employees. You may find that wages are public information but things like home addresses, discipline, various personnel decisions or medical items need not be disclosed. Since sick leave is a measure of good or ill health, you may not need to disclose that list. Talk to the folks up at the state level in charge of FOIL or sunshine law administration. They should be very willing to help you navigate through this issue. Good luck.

atrimble

I typed in a three paragraph response, and then went and checked the regs for Missouri. Looks like your sick leave records are Closed. But salaries & length of service are Open records, so if your personnel policy is recorded in Open meeting/records, someone could do a bit of research and see at least what an individual's accrual rate is.

Here's a link to Missouri's Sunshine law regs: [url]http://ago.missouri.gov/sunshinelaw/chapter610.htm[/url].

610.021. Closed meetings and closed records authorized when, exceptions. Except to the extent disclosure is otherwise required by law, a public governmental body is authorized to close meetings, records and votes, to the extent they relate to the following: records: Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public governmental body when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded. ... As used in this subdivision, the term “personal information” means information relating to the performance or merit of individual employees; Individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption shall not apply to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service of officers and employees of public agencies once they are employed as such;