Government employee salary data (Office of Financial Management)

Beryl Lipton filed this request with the Office of Financial Management of Washington.
Tracking #

PRR-251

Multi Request Government employee salary data
Status
Rejected

Communications

From: Beryl Lipton


To Whom It May Concern:

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

A copy of the most recent database maintained by this agency detailing compensation and occupation details for individuals in the employ of this agency.

Please provide, if possible, the following pieces of information for each employee:

• Name of Employee
• Unique ID (if applicable)
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Job Title or Position
• Organizational Unit
• Location
• Regular Wages
• Overtime Pay
• Other Pay
• Benefits
• Total Compensation

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 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Beryl Lipton

From: Office of Financial Management

RE: PRR-251

Good afternoon,

We received your request, copied below. Under the Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW, I reply on behalf of the agency.

Please note that this is a large request with a number of issues that will need to be addressed. Although the data pull itself is not very difficult, it may take significant time to process.

First, although you have generally requested information that is public, there will be some redaction required from these records. Names of certain ferry workers are exempt under federal security regulations. Also names of certain undercover officers are exempt as intelligence information essential to effective law enforcement. I will of course provide an exemption log when we produce the records.

Second, are you requesting Higher Education records as well? They maintain their own HRMS-type systems, and we have access only to parts of their data. If you do want Higher Education included, I strongly recommend going to those institutions for their records. It may make our processing time significantly longer if we try to produce Higher Education records.

Third, and most importantly, this request will require mass notice to all represented employees. This is based on language in our contracts with several unions, which requires us to notify employees when certain information is requested. Based on my experience performing statewide notice several times in the past several years, it is a difficult task to organize the notice and handle the response. Based on our current workload, as well as other requests we are currently handling, it will not be possible for me to give statewide notice for several months. Based on all this, I estimate that I can give notice and release records by mid-March 2020.

Fourth, by law we cannot give out lists of names for a commercial purpose. Although you have stated this request is not for a commercial purpose, I will need you to fill out and return the commercial purpose form I have attached.

Finally, some of the information you have requested is available online, with no need for notice or other complications. It is available here: http://fiscal.wa.gov/Salaries.aspx

Please let me know if that online database would satisfy your request, and do not hesitate to let me know if you have questions.

Thank you,

Nathan Sherrard

Assistant Legal Affairs Counsel

Office of Financial Management

PO Box 43113

Olympia, WA 98504-3113

360-902-0540

From: Office of Financial Management

RE: PRR-251

Good afternoon,

I am following up with you because it appears I misinterpreted the breadth of this request. Since you have asked only for a list of employees of this agency, it will take significantly less time to fulfill. However, the commercial purpose prohibition still applies, since you have requested a list of names. Although you have stated this request is not for a commercial purpose, I will need you to fill out and return the commercial purpose form I attached to my last email.

Since you are requesting information only for this agency's employees, I estimate we can provide responsive records, should we hold any, by December 20, 2019.

Thank you,

Nathan Sherrard

Assistant Legal Affairs Counsel

Office of Financial Management

PO Box 43113

Olympia, WA 98504-3113

360-902-0540

From: Office of Financial Management

RE: PRR-251

Good afternoon,

Since I have not received the commercial purpose form I previously attached, I cannot release a list of names. If I don't hear from you by January 3, I will close this request.

Thank you,

Nathan Sherrard

Assistant Legal Affairs Counsel

Office of Financial Management

PO Box 43113

Olympia, WA 98504-3113

360-902-0540

From: Office of Financial Management

RE: PRR-251

Good afternoon,

Since I have not heard from you since my last email, I am closing this request.

With this communication, we have fulfilled our obligations under the Public Records Act, and consider this matter closed.

Thank you,

Nathan Sherrard

Assistant Legal Affairs Counsel

Office of Financial Management

PO Box 43113

Olympia, WA 98504-3113

360-902-0540

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