Judges: MIKE BEEBE, Attorney General.
Filed Date: 12/12/2006
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Mr. Odies Wilson, III c/o Stacey Witherell, Employee Services Manager City of Little Rock Human Resources Department 500 West Markham, Suite 130 W Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
Dear Mr. Wilson:
I am writing in response to your request, made pursuant to A.C.A. §
RESPONSE
My statutory duty under A.C.A. §
The FOIA provides for the disclosure upon request of certain "public records," which the Arkansas Code defines as follows:
"Public records" means writings, recorded sounds, films, tapes, electronic or computer-based information, or data compilations in any medium, required by law to be kept or otherwise kept, and which constitute a record of the performance or lack of performance of official functions which are or should be carried out by a public official or employee, a governmental agency, or any other agency wholly or partially supported by public funds or expending public funds. All records maintained in public offices or by public employees within the scope of their employment shall be presumed to be public records.
A.C.A. §
As I recently explained by quoting the words of one of my predecessors:
If records fit within the definition of "public records" . . ., they are open to public inspection and copying under the FOIA except to the extent they are covered by a specific exemption in that Act or some other pertinent law.
Op. Att'y Gen.
In my opinion these application-related documents are properly classified as "personnel records" for purposes of the FOIA. The FOIA exempts from disclosure "personnel records to the extent that disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." A.C.A. §
I have summarized the test for determining the release of personnel records as follows:
The FOIA . . . does not define the phrase "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." However, the Arkansas Supreme Court has construed the phrase. In determining which disclosures constitute a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," the court applies a balancing test. The court will weigh the interest of the public in accessing the records against the individual's interest in keeping the records private. See Young v. Rice,
308 Ark. 593 ,826 S.W.2d 252 (1992). If the public's interest outweighs the individual's interest, the release of the records will not constitute a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." If there is little public interest in the information, the privacy interest will prevail if it is not insubstantial. Stilley v. McBride,332 Ark. 306 ,965 S.W.2d 125 (1998).The question of whether the release of any particular personnel record would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy is always a question of fact. Ops. Att'y Gen. Nos.
2003-336 ; 2003-201; 2001-101; 98-001.
Op. Att'y Gen.
My predecessors and I have opined on numerous occasions that job applications, are "public records," properly classified as "personnel records" and are subject to inspection and photocopying, provided that all exempt information has first been deleted. See, e.g., Ark. Ops. Att'y Gen. Nos.
In my opinion, therefore, your employment application is subject to public inspection and copying with the redaction of any information that would give rise to a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" as set out above. Assuming there is no information that would lead to a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," or that the custodian intends to redact any such information, in my opinion the custodian's decision is consistent with the FOIA.
The requester has also requested "any other public information" relating to your employment." (Emphasis added). I assume that the custodian, in determining that this information is releaseable, has made a determination to release only "public" information appearing in your employment records (as requested), and to withhold or excise any portions the release of which would give rise to a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. If so, in my opinion the custodian's decision is consistent with the FOIA. Again, having not reviewed the records in question, I cannot make a definitive determination in this regard.
As a final matter, you stated that in seeking my opinion you "want to document this obvious abuse of the FOI Act." You state that you and the requester serve on the same state commission and that issues related to this service have prompted the FOIA request.
In this regard, the identity of the FOIA requester is not ordinarily pertinent to the analysis in applying the provisions of the FOIA. As I stated in Op. Att'y Gen.
[T]he long-held view [is] that the motive of an FOIA requester is ordinarily irrelevant to the analysis. See Op. Att'y Gen.
2002-067 (". . . the balancing test under A.C.A. §25-19-105 (b)(12) does not turn upon the particular requester's motive in seeking the record where a public interest nevertheless exists in the information sought"). See also, Ops. Att'y Gen.1998-186 ; 96-309; 92-289 and Watkins, THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT at 76 (m m Press, 3rd ed. 1998). The United States Supreme Court in Department of Defense v. FLRA, supra cited with approval language of an earlier case, Department of Justice v. Reporters Comm. For Freedom of Press,489 U.S. 749 (1989), to this effect: "'whether an invasion of privacy is warranted cannot turn on the purposes for which the request for information is made.' Reporters Comm.,489 U.S., at 771 . Because Congress clearly intended the FOIA 'to give any member of the public as much right to disclosure as one with a special interest [in a particular document]' [citation omitted] . . .'the identity of the requesting party has no bearing on the merits of his or her FOIA request.'"510 U.S. 487 ,496 . The Court also stated that "all FOIA requestors have an equal, and equally qualified, right to information. . . ." Id. at 499. 'Thus whether disclosure of a private document . . . is warranted must turn on the nature of the requested document and its relationship to 'the basic purpose of the Freedom of Information Act to open agency action to the right of public scrutiny' [citation omitted] rather than on the particular purpose for which the document is being requested." Reporters Comm.,489 U.S. at 772 . Justice Ginsburg, in her concurrence in FLRA, noted the reason for this rule: "[t]his main rule serves as a check against selection among requesters, by agencies and reviewing courts, according to idiosyncratic estimations of the request's or requester's worthiness."510 U.S. at 508 .
Id. at 4-5, quoting Op. Att'y Gen.
In my opinion, therefore, the FOIA request at issue must be evaluated without regard to the particular motive of the requester.
Deputy Attorney General Elana C. Wills prepared the foregoing opinion, which I hereby approve.
Sincerely,
MIKE BEEBE Attorney General