Pennsbury board member drops giant right-to-know request
August 15, 2013 Right to Know Law
By Amy Worden
Philadelphia Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG - A Bucks County school board member has dropped a right-to-know request seeking payroll data on 80,000 state employees.
Pennsbury board member Simon Campbell, who has filed about 125 right-to-know law requests in recent years, was seeking information about state employee donations to political action committees (PACs).
Under collective-bargaining agreements, unionized state employees are allowed to have donations to PACs withdrawn directly from their paychecks. Campbell said he did not believe that allowing such deductions was fair, thus his request for the payroll data.
While their salaries are public record, many state employees feared that making other payroll information available would violate their right to privacy.
An e-mail from the state in May notifying the workers of Campbell's request set off a wave of calls from employees that jammed phone lines and shut down computers.
Last week, on the eve of the deadline for the Office of Open Records to issue its decision, Campbell sent a letter withdrawing his request.
In it he said the office was biased because it had told employees it would protect "nonpublic information," and alleged that he was denied due process.
The move stunned Terry Mutchler, executive director of the Office of Open Records, who said her staff spent 300 hours in legal research and responding to employees' phone calls and e-mails.
"It was the single biggest waste of government resources at every level since I came to the Office of Open Records," she said.
Efforts to reach Campbell on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
The withdrawal leaves open the question of how much of a public employee's payroll information should be made public.
"We are standing at the top of a slippery slope around payroll information," said Dan Egan, spokesman for the Office of Administration, which initially denied Campbell's request for the payroll records. "If a deduction is considered public under right-to-know, where do you draw the line? It's fair to know what a public servant is paid, but how an employee chooses to spend the money another matter."
State workers may not be able to rest easy for long. Late last month, Campbell submitted a new sweeping request for payroll information, which Egan said asks for essentially the same information but in different language.
Philadelphia Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG - A Bucks County school board member has dropped a right-to-know request seeking payroll data on 80,000 state employees.
Pennsbury board member Simon Campbell, who has filed about 125 right-to-know law requests in recent years, was seeking information about state employee donations to political action committees (PACs).
Under collective-bargaining agreements, unionized state employees are allowed to have donations to PACs withdrawn directly from their paychecks. Campbell said he did not believe that allowing such deductions was fair, thus his request for the payroll data.
While their salaries are public record, many state employees feared that making other payroll information available would violate their right to privacy.
An e-mail from the state in May notifying the workers of Campbell's request set off a wave of calls from employees that jammed phone lines and shut down computers.
Last week, on the eve of the deadline for the Office of Open Records to issue its decision, Campbell sent a letter withdrawing his request.
In it he said the office was biased because it had told employees it would protect "nonpublic information," and alleged that he was denied due process.
The move stunned Terry Mutchler, executive director of the Office of Open Records, who said her staff spent 300 hours in legal research and responding to employees' phone calls and e-mails.
"It was the single biggest waste of government resources at every level since I came to the Office of Open Records," she said.
Efforts to reach Campbell on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
The withdrawal leaves open the question of how much of a public employee's payroll information should be made public.
"We are standing at the top of a slippery slope around payroll information," said Dan Egan, spokesman for the Office of Administration, which initially denied Campbell's request for the payroll records. "If a deduction is considered public under right-to-know, where do you draw the line? It's fair to know what a public servant is paid, but how an employee chooses to spend the money another matter."
State workers may not be able to rest easy for long. Late last month, Campbell submitted a new sweeping request for payroll information, which Egan said asks for essentially the same information but in different language.
