Tennessee State Employees (2019 - 2022)

Kent Hoover filed this request on behalf of Ben Goehring with the Comptroller Of The Treasury of Tennessee.
Submitted May 11, 2022
Est. Completion None
Status
No Responsive Documents

Communications

From: Ben Goehring

Subject: Tennessee Public Records Act Request: Tennessee State Employees (2019 - 2022)

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To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

Copies of the State of Tennessee employee salary data published on the "Transparent Tennessee" website (https://salary.app.tn.gov/public/searchsalary) for each month from January 2019 through March 2022.

For each month, I’m seeking a spreadsheet, database, or delimited text file(s) — not paper records or a PDF created from data — with the following fields for every employee who worked in the Tennessee Executive Branch: Agency Name, Last Name, First Name, Job Title, Comp Rate, Comp Rate Period, Full/Part, and Bonus. If possible, please also provide information on employees' race/ethnicity, and sex. If these latter variables are unavailable, please exclude them and provide only the variables listed above.

If the data is not available for every month, please provide it at the most frequent interval possible. For instance, if the data is not available for each month, please provide quarterly listings. If unavailable quarterly, please provide bi-annual listings.

Please include any lookup tables that may be needed to interpret the data. For example, if departments are listed with codes linked to a separate table, I will be happy to join the records myself, rather than require your staff to do so.

I am comfortable working with large data sets and can receive the records in a variety of formats (.dbf, .csv, .mdb, etc).

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 7 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Kent Hoover, a citizen of Tennessee, in coordination with Ben Goehring.

From: Comptroller Of The Treasury

Subject: Regarding Inquiry 016366

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Good afternoon, Mr. Hoover,

Thank you for contacting the Office of Open Records Counsel about obtaining records related to employee salaries. While our office answers questions and provides information about the Tennessee Public Records Act ("TPRA"), we are not a clearinghouse for public record requests and do not obtain public records on behalf of third parties. Accordingly, we must respectfully deny your request, as we are not the custodian of the records you're requesting.

Under the TPRA, each governmental entity is obligated to have a public records policy that sets forth the process for requesting public records, responding to requests, the contact information for the local Public Records Request Coordinator, and any costs associated with providing copies of public records. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503(g). Accordingly, we would recommend submitting your request to the governmental entity that is the custodian of the public records you seek in accordance with that entity's public records policy. We suggest contacting the Tennessee Department of Human Resources or the Tennessee Department of the Treasury for this information.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Maria Bush
Open Records Counsel
Comptroller of the Treasury
Office of Open Records
425 Rep. John Lewis Way N | Nashville, TN 37243
maria.bush@cot.tn.gov<mailto:maria.bush@cot.tn.gov> | Direct Line 615.747.5280

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