Fire Department employee names
Q: Would the Names of employees working for a City Fire Department be considered accessible via the Public Records Request? I have a year range from like 1985 to 1987.
A: As a general rule, the names of public employees are a matter of public record and subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act, Government Code sections 6250-6259. But there are exemptions to the PRA’s presumption of public access. One is for private information contained in personnel records (Government Code section 6254(c)), and another (in section 6254(k)) is for records that are privileged from disclosure under some other statute. One such privilege in California is for peace officer personnel records (Penal Code section 832.7), and the statute defines peace officers to include “members of a fire department” (Penal Code section 830.31(a)).
However, the California Court of Appeal has held that the exemption for personnel records in Government Code section 6254(c), and the privilege for peace officer personnel records in Penal Code section 832.7 does not allow a police department to withhold the names of police officers involved in a shooting incident. New York Times Co. v. Superior Court, 52 Cal. App. 4th 97 (1997). Under the logic of that case — which holds that the names of the officers are a matter of public record that cannot be withheld by claiming that it is also information contained in a personnel file — you should be entitled to obtain the names of the employees of the fire department under the PRA.