Fed Salaries (by name!) online!

[BuddyLee]

I'll be on the list, soon enough.

*Works on applications*

 

[crabcake]

Originally posted by FromTexas
Actually it has been held by many lower courts that public servant pay can be attached to name.

School districts, cities, etc... all have to provide a copy of all persons pay, etc on request. It can not be specifc in their home address, home information, or what benefits they use, but they can know your total salary (benefits package and all) or base salary plus bonuses.

supporting linkage? :shrug:

 

[FromTexas]

How about I just quote the federal act:

(2) the name, sex, ethnicity, salary, title, and dates of employment of each employee and officer of a governmental body;

I can't link court cases. We discussed public servant employee privacy in my legal issues class in my MPA. I have a huge book of court cases related to administrative law. I will dig through and find some of the specific cases that have upheld state acts similar to the federal act. Then can use findlaw online and link the cases.

 

[FromTexas]

Oops! I quoted the Texas Act out of habit. Not the federal. Here is a quote from guidance on the federal act.

Another area that merits particular discussion is the applicability of Exemption 6 to requests for information about civilian and military federal employees. Generally, civilian employees' names, present and past position titles, grades, salaries, and duty stations are releasable as no viable privacy interest exists in such data. (198) The Department of Justice recommends the release of additional items, particularly those relating to professional qualifications for federal employment. (199) By regulation, the Department of the Army discloses the name, rank, date of rank, gross salary, duty assignments, office telephone number, source of commission, promotion sequence number, awards and decorations, educational level, and duty status of most of its military personnel and the name, past and present position titles, grades, salaries, and duty stations of its civilian employees. (200) And as a matter of policy, the entire Department of Defense discloses the same information and other nonsensitive data concerning most of its servicemembers and civilian employees. (201)

From the DoJ

There are court cases that support the limited weight of privacy in cases such as these versus the greater weight of government transparency to those it serves.

BTW - When I was an investment advisor, I could buy lists for cheap that told me how much people saved at an address, what their household income was, etc... without needing a government list. Your information is sold on a daily basis from any little thing you fill out, apply for, or otherwise. The records can be gotten through many other means. With your name, I can tell you how much you paid in property taxes last year, what the last assesed value of your home was, what liens you have on your property, your household income, and a lot of other info. It isn't called the information age for nothing.

 

[Cletus_Vandam]

What's the Problem!!??

Everyone out there who seems to have problem with this information being public record is either a gov employee or the spouse of a gov employee.

I am employed by a gov agency and my salary information is public record. I have no problem with that, it is what it is. I don't get the annual 4 or 5 figure bonus at Christmas time that those in the private sector typically see in my profession.... I have to complete an annual disclosure statement that discloses who owns the mortgage on my house and other very intrusive/personal information. This is required to make sure there are no conflicts of interest relating to my field of work. It's all in getting a position with a government agency. You have to take the good with the bad. There are certainly "perks" with a gov position, and it's a personal decision that has to be made if the benefits outweigh the downside.

I guess everyone that has a problem with gov employees pay being public information would prefer their salaries to kept secret along with all other government spending...

 

[Tonio]

Good point, Cletus. It is the taxpayers' money. Without that kind of public disclosure, we might not know if, say, an ousted superintendent got a "golden parachute" package, or if some high-level bureaucrat pulled strings to get a relative a job.

 

[sifl]

Originally posted by FromTexas
With your name, I can tell you how much you paid in property taxes last year, what the last assesed value of your home was, what liens you have on your property, your household income, and a lot of other info.

My name is Ken Rossignol. Tell me.

 

[Warron]

It just says 'bad request' when I try.