Question
We have two issues involving public records access: We requested records, including e-mails and memos, from the school district that discuss possible discipline of the financial services director. The district turned down the request. 2. We’d like to know if it is possible to find out why a city finance director was fired recently.
Are those personnel records protected by a constitutional or statutory right to privacy or is it worth requesting access?
Answer
It is certainly possible that the school district may cite privacy as a reason to turn down your request, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are correct to do so.
Government Code section 6254 provides that ” Except as provided in Section 6254.7, nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require disclosure of records that are … (c) Personnel, medical or similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invations of personal privacy.” Generally speaking, however, this exemption is only supposed to apply to purely personal information in the files unrelated to the “conduct of the public’s business.” See San Gabriel Tribune v. Superior Court, 143 Cal.App.3d 762 (1983). If in fact a person was disciplined, or worse, fired because of some issue, that matter should be of sufficient public concern that should take it out of the realm of ‘personal privacy.” See AFSCME v. Regents, 80 Cal.App.3d 913 (1978). So in response to your latter question, you should certainly request access.
In response to your first question, you should be able to get access to any documents regarding actual discipline. If, on the other hand, the allegations were not deemed sufficient to warrant discipline — e.g. the allegations were deemed frivolous or not credible — then the school district may be on stronger grounds in deeming them “private.”
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.