Question
A government official recently retired and received monetary reimbursement for unused vacation and sick leave. Can the reimbursement be made available to the public if requested?
Answer
The answer to your question is yes.The California Attorney General has concluded in two opinion letters that the specific compensation of individual government employees is a matter of public record.In a published opinion (68 Ops. Cal. Atty. Gen. 73 (1985)), the attorney general concluded that if a public employee is awarded a merit pay bonus, the public is entitled to know who the employee is, the amount awarded and even the reasons for the award.And in an unpublished opinion letter (Letter to Brian Hill from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Lewis Dubois (1988)), the attorney general concluded that the exact compensation (not simply the pay range) of each employee is a matter of public record.
Asked & Answered posts should not be relied on as legal advice, and FAC makes no guarantees about their completeness or accuracy. All posts carry a date of publication that readers should take note of in assessing their usefulness, given that laws and interpretations of them may change over time. Posts predating Jan. 1, 2023, that discuss the California Public Records Act may contain statute numbers no longer in use. Please see this page for a table showing how the California Public Records Act has been renumbered.