Granted: $100,000 salary information from payroll records
April 08, 2009 Filed in: Granted
| Lehigh Carbon
CC |
Lehigh
Co. | Carbon Co.
| Payroll
| Record
doesn't exist
Granted: A request to Lehigh
Carbon Community College for the name, title and
actual current salary of all college employees
with annual salaries of $100,000 or more. The
college had issued a denial, stating that the
request was for "free floating" information that
does not exist in a specific public record.
From
the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information
Coalition
Granted: A request to Lehigh Carbon Community College for the name, title and actual current salary of all college employees with annual salaries of $100,000 or more. The college had issued a denial, stating that the request was for "free floating" information that does not exist in a specific public record.
The Office of Open Records requested clarification of the college's payroll system and the reason for the denial.
LCCC responded that it would need to extract all the individual salary information from its payroll system to identify those employees greater than $100,000, and cited the provision in the Right to Know Law that states an agency is not required to create a record which does not currently exist.
The Office of Open Records had this to say:
"LCCC contends that the records requested cannot be provided because one record or set of records does not specifically indicate which employees have an annual salary of $100,000. This contention is rejected," the OOR said. "Mr. Ross [LCCC's open records officer] is correct that the RTKL does not require creation of records, but it does provide for access to information which he concedes is available in the biweekly pay records generated by LCCC.
"While LCCC is not required to create a unique list or spreadsheet of employees that have an annual salary of $100,000, LCCC is required to produce any records that contain the salary information that [the requester] requested. Additionally, an agency may not deny access to records merely because retrieval requires searching for or extracting those records from a large or voluminous source."
Mauriello vs. Lehigh Carbon Community College -- AP 2009-0143
Granted: A request to Lehigh Carbon Community College for the name, title and actual current salary of all college employees with annual salaries of $100,000 or more. The college had issued a denial, stating that the request was for "free floating" information that does not exist in a specific public record.
The Office of Open Records requested clarification of the college's payroll system and the reason for the denial.
LCCC responded that it would need to extract all the individual salary information from its payroll system to identify those employees greater than $100,000, and cited the provision in the Right to Know Law that states an agency is not required to create a record which does not currently exist.
The Office of Open Records had this to say:
"LCCC contends that the records requested cannot be provided because one record or set of records does not specifically indicate which employees have an annual salary of $100,000. This contention is rejected," the OOR said. "Mr. Ross [LCCC's open records officer] is correct that the RTKL does not require creation of records, but it does provide for access to information which he concedes is available in the biweekly pay records generated by LCCC.
"While LCCC is not required to create a unique list or spreadsheet of employees that have an annual salary of $100,000, LCCC is required to produce any records that contain the salary information that [the requester] requested. Additionally, an agency may not deny access to records merely because retrieval requires searching for or extracting those records from a large or voluminous source."
Mauriello vs. Lehigh Carbon Community College -- AP 2009-0143