International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Local 21 v. Superior Court

The majority holds that the names and salaries of public employees are records that are subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act. (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.) I agree. And I agree with the majority that public employees serving as peace officers have no statutory right to prevent disclosure of their names and salaries; but unlike the majority I would simply rely on the plain language of Penal Code sections 832.7 and 832.8 in reaching that conclusion.

I

The scope of confidentiality accorded a peace officer’s personal information is properly determined by construing two statutory schemes as well as certain provisions of our state Constitution. I briefly discuss the pertinent law below.

In 1968, the Legislature enacted the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.), a statutory scheme affirming every Californian’s *347 fundamental right of “access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business.” (Gov. Code, § 6250, added by Stats. 1968, ch. 1473, § 39, pp. 2945, 2946.) But public access is not unlimited. The act does not require disclosure of records that are “exempted or prohibited pursuant to . . . state law.” (Gov. Code, §…

*327 Opinion

This case presents the question whether the names and salaries of public employees earning $100,000 or more per year, including peace officers, are exempt from public disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.). 1 The Court of Appeal concluded they are not, because “well-established norms of California public policy and American public employment exclude public employee names and salaries from the zone of financial privacy protection.” For the reasons explained below, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

I.

Reporters employed by Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc. (the Newspapers), requested under the California Public Records Act (the Act) that the City of Oakland (the City) provide them with the names, job titles, and gross salaries of all city employees who earned $100,000 or more in fiscal year 2003-2004, including those individuals whose base salaries equaled or exceeded that amount and those who earned a lower base salary but were paid $100,000 or more because of overtime work. The City agreed to disclose salary and overtime information for each job classification, but refused to provide salary information linked to…

Except as to peace officers, I agree with the majority that the names and salaries of public employees earning $100,000 or more per year are not exempt from public disclosure under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.).

With regard to peace officers, I also agree with the majority’s conclusion that the salaries of peace officers earning $100,000 or more per year, as a general matter, are not exempt from public disclosure under the CPRA. However, I have joined Justice Chin’s dissenting opinion in Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training v. Superior Court (2007) 42 Cal.4th 278, 306 [ 64 Cal.Rptr.3d 661 , 165 P.3d 462 ] (dis. opn. of Chin, J.), which, contrary to the majority view in that case, recognizes that peace officers’ names themselves fall into the category of confidential “[p]ersonal data,” within the meaning of Penal Code section 832.8, subdivision (a), when the names are recorded in peace officer personnel records. 1 Accordingly, I agree with Justice Chin here that where a request is made for disclosure of peace officers’ names in connection with a request for disclosure of peace officer salary information, “names may not be…

Except as to peace officers, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that names and salaries of public employees earning $100,000 or more per year are not exempt from public disclosure under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.). 1 As explained below, however, my analysis of this question is somewhat different from the majority’s and I do not endorse all of the majority’s reasoning. Regarding peace officers, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that salary information is not exempt from disclosure. However, as explained in my dissenting opinion in Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training v. Superior Court (2007) 42 Cal.4th 278, 306 [ 64 Cal.Rptr.3d 661 , 165 P.3d 462 ] (dis. opn. of Chin, J.), I believe that peace officers’ names are “[p]ersonal data” *350 within the meaning of Penal Code section 832.8, subdivision (a). Thus, I would hold that where, as here, a request is made for disclosure of names linked to salary, officers’ names may not be disclosed to the extent the source of that information is a “file maintained under [the peace officer’s] name by his or her employing agency.” (Pen. Code, § 832.8.) I dissent to the extent the…

Mastagni, Holstedt, Amick, Miller, Johnsen & Uhrhammer, David E. Mastagni, Will M. Yamada, Sacramento, and Stesha R. Hodges for California Correctional Peace Officers Association, Legal Defense Fund of the Peace Officers' Research Association of California, CAUSE-Statewide Law Enforcement Association, Deputy Sheriffs' Association of Alameda County, Placer County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, Sacramento Police Officers' Association, Stockton Police Officers' Association, San Mateo County Deputy Sheriffs' Association and San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs' Association as Amici Curiae on behalf of Petitioners and Real Party In Interest Oakland Police Officers' Association.

No appearance for Respondent.

Levy, Ram & Olson, Karl Olson and Erica L. Craven, San Francisco, for Real Party in Interest Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc.

Rains, Lucia & Wilkinson and Allison Berry Wilkinson for Real Party in Interest Oakland Police Officers' Association.

Davis Wright Tremaine and Thomas R. Burke, San Francisco, for Coalition of University Employees as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Real Party in Interest Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc.

Trevor A. Grimm, Los…