From the Greensboro News and Record (3/17/10): North Carolina's laws governing public records and state employee personnel files are a study in contrasts.
On the one hand, all public records must be produced when requested. On the other, all but the most basic information about public employees can be withheld.
An investigative series by The News & Observer of Raleigh cites several instances in which those severe constraints — among the nation’s most stringent — have protected employees who should have been fired or never hired in the first place.
Among them was a teacher who had resigned in New Hanover County for inappropriate behavior with a student, only to be hired in nearby Pitt County, where she was caught doing the same thing. Because of the restrictions, her previous employment history in the state was not available. She’s now in prison.
Since 1997, more than two dozen State Highway Patrol officers have been investigated for misconduct, many of the allegations sex-related. However, a follow-up consultant’s study on hiring practices was hamstrung by an inability to examine relevant personnel files.
The excessive secrecy also makes it next to impossible to root out nepotism, patronage and cronyism.
A glaring example is N.C. State University’s initial refusal to provide information on the hiring of former first lady Mary Easley and her subsequent 88 percent pay increase.
An investigation at the Division of Motor Vehicles revealed that employees getting jobs through political or family connections padded paychecks with bogus overtime and mileage costing thousands of dollars.
While government workers are entitled to job safeguards, the public shouldn’t be shortchanged on accountability and openness. But, so far, influential employee and local government groups have successfully resisted.
Little has changed since the State Personnel Act passed in 1975. An “integrity exemption,” which allows department heads to release nonpublic personnel information if the agency’s reputation is at stake, is rarely used.
It’s a fine line, no doubt, between protecting public sector workers from false accusations and shedding light on behavior not in the public’s interest.
Yet, it’s past time for the General Assembly to pursue more accessibility on the public’s behalf. Legislators can start by acting on Attorney General Roy Cooper’s proposal that “serious discipline of governmental employees be made public record.”
As Cooper maintains, taxpayers have a right to know if and why a public employee has been suspended, demoted or fired. Privacy shouldn’t be a shield for misbehavior.
Greensboro News & Record Staff Editorial