2005-01 Disclosure of Exact Salaries OIP Opinion 05-03

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Mr. Michael Tresler January 19, 2005 Page 3 nor the budget ordinance identify the name of county employee holding the specific job title.5 Finance is concerned that the exact salary of a covered employee can easily be determined. Specifically, Finance correctly notes that an employee's name and job title, including a covered employee's name and job title, are public and must be disclosed upon request. In many instances, especially where there is only one employee with a particular job title, that information can be cross-referenced against the information contained in the proposed budget to easily determine a specific employee's exact salary. DISCUSSION The Council's practice'of requiring the job title of every County employee and the corresponding salary earned by that employee to be listed in the proposed budget raises a series of issues for us to consider. Because the proposed budget, once submitted to the Council, is required to be available to the public by the Charter, Finance's disclosure to the Council is, in essence, disclosure to the public. Moreover, although the information contained in the proposed budget does not identify the person holding the particular position, for the purposes of our analysis, because of the relative easy in determining that information through other public records, we have considered the proposed budget as if it identified the covered employee by name and his or her exact salary. We, therefore, have considered the issue raised by Finance's request to be whether Finance is allowed to withhold from public disclosure the exact salaries of covered employees notwithstanding the Charter's requirement that the information be publics That inquiry, stated another way, is whether the Charter's requirement that the proposed budget, containing the exact salary information, be available to the public violates the UIPA. 5 The Office of the County Attorney provided us with the most recent budget ordinance, Ordinance No. B-2004-621, adopted by the Council on May 24, 2004 and approved by the Mayor on May 28, 2004. That ordinance lists all of the County positions and the corresponding salaries for each position, including those positions held by covered employees, and incorporates the detailed computer run submitted by Finance. 6 The issue about whether Finance is authorized to share the exact salary information with the Council is addressed by section 92F-19(a)(6), HRS. That section allows an agency to disclose records (and information) that would otherwise be protected from disclosure It]o the legislature, or a county council, or any committee or subcommittee thereof[.]" Haw. Rev. Stat. § 92F-19(a)(6) (1999). While, generally, inter-agency disclosure under section 92F-19, HRS, is discretionary, i.e., it does not require disclosure by one agency to another, because the UIPA is premised on disclosure, as discussed herein, we believe that the Charter's requirement that Finance provide the proposed budget to the Council is consistent with the UIPA. OIP Op. Ltr. No. 05-03