Idaho organization launches salary database

The Idaho Freedom Foundation created a database on OurIdaho.com in which people can search for the names and salaries of government employees, KTVB.com reported. The IFF obtained the data via FOIA requests, and its database contains nearly 40,000 employees.

Want to know how much money your child's teacher makes? How about the police officer who pulled you over last night?

Now you can.

A group that bills itself as a think tank dedicated to limited government has launched a salary database, that allows anyone to look up the names and pay rates for a range of government employees.

More here.

Conn. housing authority appeals decision on release of job candidate info

The Ridgefield Housing Authority in Connecticut is appealing the Freedom of Information Commission's ruling that it must release job candidate records, The Ridgefield Press reported. The Commission said the Housing Authority didn't justify that the release of resumes from those who interviewed for the executive director position in 2007 who invade personal privacy.

Ridgefield’s Housing Authority is appealing a Freedom of Information Commission decision ordering it to release the résumés of people it interviewed for a job in 2005.

“They all have personal information in them and we don’t feel that’s something that should be given to the public,” said Housing Authority Chairman Phil Bergquist.

The legal battle pitting open government statutes against privacy rights appears to have roots in a dispute between a resident of the Housing Authority’s apartments and the staff managing the apartment complex.

More here.

Transparency portal proposed but unpopular in Ill.

Illinois state Rep. Michael Tryon is urging the government "to create a Web site with a searchable database containing information about contracts, expenditures and employee salaries," The State (Ill.) Journal-Register reported. However, the legislative director for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said some lower paid employees feel "sort of like their laundry's being aired." In other Illinois ethics news, the executive inspector general for agencies under the governor's office wants the law changed so that he and other inspectors won't have to wait for complaints to be filed in order to investigate anonymous tips.

Spurred by the Dec. 9 arrest of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, officials inside and outside of state government are studying ways to battle government corruption.

GateHouse Media’s State Capitol Bureau is tracking their work and examining the issues that arise at public hearings of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government Reform. The idea is to help readers understand attempts to fix state government and make it run in a way that better serves the public.

Last Tuesday, the legislative committee focused for a second time on the topic of “open government.”

More here.

Texas Supreme Court to decide if birth dates are public records

The Texas Supreme Court is waiting to see if state lawmakers will pass a bill that would exempt state employees' birth dates from the state's public records laws, the AP reported. If lawmakers don't, the court has decided it will hear the case. Journalists argue that without birth dates, it's nearly impossible to distinguish between employees with the same name. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs' office is concerned that the release of such information will lead to identify theft.

The Texas Supreme Court agreed Friday to consider whether state employees' birth dates are public information or must be shielded under a right to privacy.

Media and freedom of information advocates say birth dates are necessary to distinguish employees who may have the same name. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs' office has said they should be private under common law and the state Constitution.

The court did not set a date when it would hear arguments, suggesting it would wait to see if state lawmakers will write an exception for date-of-birth information into state public records laws. Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, has already filed such a bill.

More here.

No exemptions for names, birthdays of Pa. contractors

The new Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruled that names of employees are public records, even if the employees work for government contractors, the AP reported. Government employees' birth dates are also not exempted from the Right-to-Know Law in the state.

Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records says the names of employees of government contractors and the birth dates of government employees are public records.

The new agency said in its first batch of rulings that the names and dates of birth aren't covered by the many exceptions to the state Right-to-Know Law.

The Quakertown Community School District had granted a request to release payroll forms for a subcontractor working on a school renovation project, but redacted the employees' names.

More here.

Records show nearly every Long Island Rail Road employee gets disability pay

The New York Times analyzed federal records to find that practically ever L.I.R.R. employee, even those with desk jobs, applied for and received disability pay. Apparently, most are able-bodied until they retire. However, the Railroad Retirement Board rarely rejects a disability claim.

To understand what it’s like to work on the railroad — the Long Island Rail Road — a good place to start is the Sunken Meadow golf course, a rolling stretch of state-owned land on Long Island Sound.

During the workweek, it is not uncommon to find retired L.I.R.R. employees, sometimes dozens of them, golfing there. A few even walk the course. Yet this is not your typical retiree outing.

These golfers are considered disabled. At an age when most people still work, they get a pension and tens of thousands of dollars in annual disability payments — a sum roughly equal to the base salary of their old jobs. Even the golf is free, courtesy of New York State taxpayers.

With incentives like these, occupational disabilities at the L.I.R.R. have become a full-blown epidemic.

More here.

UPDATE: Agents raid office in L.I.R.R. Disability Inquiry; The New York Times

Michigan Supreme Court Closes Employee Info

The home phone numbers and addresses of University of Michigan employees are not public information, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in a decision released Wednesday.

The court overturned the 2007 decision of an appeals court, which said the information was public barring "truly exceptional circumstances."

A five-justice majority of the Supreme Court found that the information doesn't have to be disseminated under the state's Freedom of Information Act. They said it meets the two-pronged legal test of being information of a personal nature, and its disclosure would be an invasion of the employees' privacy.

Where a person lives and how that person may be contacted, the justices wrote, "offers private and even confidential details about that person's life."

In reaching the decision, the justices said they were revising the prior legal definition of information considered to be of a personal nature. In addition to details of an embarrassing or intimate nature, the justices expanded the definition to include information that is private or confidential.

Releasing the employees' home phone numbers and home addresses also wouldn't shed any light on whether the university is functioning properly, the justices ruled.
"We're delighted, absolutely delighted the court recognized the importance of the privacy interests that our employees have in their home phone numbers and addresses," said U-M spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham.

More here.