Granted: Redacted third-party payroll records
March 23, 2009 Filed in: Granted
| Denied
| Pocono
Mountain | Personal
security | Third-party
contractors | Payroll
| Personal
information
Granted in part and denied in
part: A request for certified payroll
records from a third-party contractor from Pocono
Mountain School District was granted, with only
the Social Security numbers redacted.
From
the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information
Coalition
Granted in part and denied in part: A request for certified payroll records from a third-party contractor from Pocono Mountain School District was granted, with only the Social Security numbers redacted.
The school district had provided the records with names, home addresses, Social Security numbers and withholding exceptions redacted. In its response to the Office of Open Records, it claimed this information was exempt from release under the Right to Know Law's personal security and personal identification exceptions. It also cited a private employee's "inherent legal assumption of privacy" included in both the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions.
The Office of Open Records stated that Social Security numbers are specifically protected from release under the new law, and therefore were properly redacted, but that the remaining employee information should have been supplied.
Names are not personal information under the new law, and should have been disclosed for the reasons set forth in a previous ruling, the OOR said. It also ruled that the district did not meet its burden of proof to protect home addresses or tax exempt status under the law.
The OOR further concluded that the district could not establish a constitutional right to privacy in home addresses or tax exempt status of private employees in either the federal or state Constitutions.
Green vs. Pocono Mountain School District – AP 2009-0103
Granted in part and denied in part: A request for certified payroll records from a third-party contractor from Pocono Mountain School District was granted, with only the Social Security numbers redacted.
The school district had provided the records with names, home addresses, Social Security numbers and withholding exceptions redacted. In its response to the Office of Open Records, it claimed this information was exempt from release under the Right to Know Law's personal security and personal identification exceptions. It also cited a private employee's "inherent legal assumption of privacy" included in both the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions.
The Office of Open Records stated that Social Security numbers are specifically protected from release under the new law, and therefore were properly redacted, but that the remaining employee information should have been supplied.
Names are not personal information under the new law, and should have been disclosed for the reasons set forth in a previous ruling, the OOR said. It also ruled that the district did not meet its burden of proof to protect home addresses or tax exempt status under the law.
The OOR further concluded that the district could not establish a constitutional right to privacy in home addresses or tax exempt status of private employees in either the federal or state Constitutions.
Green vs. Pocono Mountain School District – AP 2009-0103