When someone asks the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles for a list of employees and former employees receiving state disability income, including their names and the dollar amount of disability income they receive, is that a public record the DMV must release, or is it protected personnel information?
Plain-English summary
The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Janice Faulkner, received a public-records request for a list of DMV employees and former DMV employees receiving disability income from the state. The list, as the DMV maintained it, showed just the employee name and the dollar amount of disability income; it did not show the type of disability or the reasons for the disability designation. Commissioner Faulkner asked the AG whether the list was a public record.
Chief Deputy AG Andrew A. Vanore, Jr. concluded the list was public and had to be released.
The starting point was the general personnel-confidentiality rule in N.C.G.S. § 126-22, which provides that personnel files of state employees, former state employees, and applicants are not subject to inspection as public records. The statute defines "personnel file" broadly to include information about "the individual's application, selection or nonselection, promotions, demotions, transfers, leave, salary, suspension, performance evaluation forms, disciplinary actions, and termination of employment."
But § 126-23 carves out a list of items that are public records, including the employee's name, age, date of original employment, current position title, current salary, date and amount of most recent salary change, date of most recent promotion or demotion, and the office or station to which the employee is currently assigned.
The AG read "salary" broadly. The North Carolina Supreme Court in Bridges v. City of Charlotte, 221 N.C. 472 (1942), had held that "salary" includes retirement benefits when defining compensation. By analogy, the AG concluded that "salary" in § 126-23 includes disability income. The Disability Income Plan of North Carolina, established by the General Assembly in 1988 (Article 6 of Chapter 135), is administered by the Department of State Treasurer and the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System Board of Trustees. The Plan provides "equitable replacement income" for state teachers and state employees who become temporarily or permanently disabled before retirement. Functionally, it is a continuation of compensation in a different form when an employee cannot work. That functional continuity supported reading "salary" in § 126-23 to encompass disability income.
The AG also used the alternative-textual reading. Section 126-23 lists "date of most recent promotion, demotion, transfer, suspension, separation, or other change in position classification, and the office or station to which the employee is currently assigned." The status of "receiving disability income" fits within "other change in position classification" and "the office or station to which the employee is currently assigned." So even if "salary" were construed narrowly, the disability-income status could still be publicized through this catch-all category.
The result was practically narrow. The list showed only names and amounts. The DMV did not have to disclose what disability the employees had, what medical records supported the designation, or any other underlying information. Those would have been part of the protected personnel file under § 126-22. Just the fact of disability-income status and the dollar amount were public.
Currency note
This opinion was issued in 1997. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here. The North Carolina state personnel privacy framework in Chapters 126 and 135 has been amended since 1997, including changes in how disability income, retirement benefits, and personnel records are handled. The general principle that salary-type information is a public record while medical and disciplinary detail is private remains, but specific applications should be verified against the current statute and any controlling case law.
Background and statutory framework
North Carolina's public-records framework treats state-employee compensation as a transparency item. The premise is that taxpayers fund public salaries and have a legitimate interest in knowing what they pay each employee. Section 126-23's list of public information was designed to capture the financial and structural facts about employment while leaving medical, evaluative, and disciplinary detail confidential.
The 1988 establishment of the Disability Income Plan of North Carolina was a significant restructuring of how the state handled disabled employees. Before the Plan, disabled employees had a patchwork of workers' compensation, sick leave extensions, and ad-hoc retirement options. The Plan consolidated those into a single benefit administered by the Treasurer and the Retirement System Board of Trustees, with eligibility tied to either temporary or permanent disability before retirement. The Plan paid eligible employees a percentage of their pre-disability compensation, with continued accrual of retirement and other benefits to maintain pension trajectories.
The Bridges case is the classic precedent for broad readings of "salary" in North Carolina employment law. The Supreme Court reasoned that compensation paid to public employees, in whatever form, is part of the employment relationship and shares the same public-interest status. The AG opinion's application of Bridges to disability income was a clean extension: disability income is a form of compensation paid to employees as part of the employment relationship.
The structural protection in the opinion was important. By limiting the disclosure to names and amounts, the AG protected the truly private aspects of disability information. The fact that someone is receiving disability income reveals less than identifying the nature of the disability. Medical privacy is preserved; financial transparency is achieved. The result is the standard North Carolina balancing of these competing interests.
The opinion's audience was both DMV management and the broader state-government workforce. DMV had asked the question, but the AG opinion applied to every state agency that maintained disability-income data. The cross-cutting nature of the conclusion meant journalists, watchdog groups, and curious citizens across the state could request analogous lists from other agencies.
Common questions
Can the public ask for the medical reason behind a state employee's disability income designation?
No. The medical reason and the disability files themselves are protected personnel information under § 126-22. Only the fact of disability income and the dollar amount are public.
What about local government employees in North Carolina? Same rule?
Local-government personnel files in North Carolina are governed by separate provisions (e.g., G.S. § 153A-98 for counties and G.S. § 160A-168 for cities), which have similar but not identical structures. The general principle (salary information public, medical detail private) is the same, but the specific application to local-government disability programs would have to be analyzed under those provisions.
Could the public ask for the full list of employees on disability income, by name and amount, in a single document?
Under this opinion, yes. The AG's reasoning makes the entire roster public information. An agency could not refuse to compile or disclose the list on personnel-privacy grounds, since the underlying data points are themselves public.
Does this apply to retirees too?
The opinion focused on employees and former employees receiving disability income. Standard service retirees' pension amounts are public under separate statutes (G.S. § 135-9, treating retirement benefits paid as public information). The Disability Income Plan was the specific subject here.
Source
Citations
- N.C.G.S. §§ 126-22, 126-23, 132-6
- Article 6 of Chapter 135 (Disability Income Plan of North Carolina, established 1988)
- Bridges v. City of Charlotte, 221 N.C. 472 (1942)
Original opinion text
March 18, 1997
Ms. Janice Faulkner Commissioner of Motor Vehicles 1100 New Bern Avenue Raleigh, North Carolina 27697-0001
RE: Advisory Opinion; Public Records; Employee Personnel Information; N.C.G.S. §§ 126-22 and 126-23
Dear Commissioner Faulkner:
You ask our advice concerning a public records request for a list of employees or former employees of the Department of Motor Vehicles who are receiving disability income. You advise that such a list is available. The only information it provides is the name of the individual and the amount of money he or she is receiving as disability income. It gives no particulars as to the type of disability or the reasons why the individual was placed on disability. For reasons which follow, such a list is a public record which should be released.
N.C.G.S. §126-22 provides that the "(p)ersonnel files of State employees, former State employees, or applicants for State employment shall not be subject to the inspection and examination (as public records) as authorized by G.S. 132-6." This section then defines what personnel file information consists of.
For purposes of this Article, a personnel file consists of any information gathered by the department, division, bureau, commission, council, or other agency subject to Article 7 of this Chapter which employs an individual, previously employed an individual, or considered an individual's application for employment, or by the office of State Personnel, and which information relates to the individual's application, selection or nonselection, promotions, demotions, transfers, leave, salary, suspension, performance evaluation forms, disciplinary actions, and termination of employment wherever located and in whatever form. N.C.G.S. §126-22.
The General Assembly, recognizing that some information about state employees and former state employees should be made available as public record information, mandated that certain information contained in a personnel file shall be open to inspection as a public record. N.C.G.S. §126-23 provides, in pertinent part, as follows:
Each department, agency, institution, commission and bureau of the State shall maintain a record of each of its employees, showing the following information with respect to each such employee: name, age, date of original employment or appointment to the State service, current position, title, current salary, date and amount of most recent increase or decrease in salary, date of most recent promotion, demotion, transfer, suspension, separation, or other change in position classification, and the office or station to which the employee is currently assigned.
In 1988 the North Carolina General Assembly established the Disability Income Plan of North Carolina. See, Article 6 of Chapter 135 of the North Carolina General Statutes. This Plan is administered by the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer and the Board of Trustees of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System within the terms and conditions of the Plan as set forth in Article 6. The Plan was established to provide an equitable replacement income for eligible state teachers and state employees who become temporarily or permanently disabled for the performance of their duty prior to retirement and to encourage disabled state teachers and state employees who are able to work to seek gainful employment after a reasonable period of rehabilitation. The Plan further provides for the accrual of retirement and other benefits to the date the eligible state teacher or state employee meets the requirements for an unreduced retirement under the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System.
The General Assembly has provided in N.C.G.S. §126-23 that the salary of a state employee or former employee is a matter of public record. The word "salary" has broadly been defined by our State Supreme Court to include retirement benefits. See, Bridges v. City of Charlotte, 221 N.C. 472, 482 (1942). It is our opinion, therefore, that the word "salary" includes disability income. Moreover, although N.C.G.S. §126-23 does not specifically state that being in the status of receiving disability income is a matter of public record, that statute requires the employer to provide as public record information the "date of most recent promotion, demotion, transfer, suspension, separation, or other change in position classification, and the office or station to which the employee is currently assigned." We believe that an employee's status as receiving "disability income" fits within the meaning of "or other change in position classification," and the "office or station to which the employee is currently assigned," as stated in N.C.G.S. §126-23.
In conclusion, assuming that the Department of Motor Vehicles has a record which lists the names and salary of those individuals on disability retirement, that list is a public record which must be disclosed.
Andrew A. Vanore, Jr.
Chief Deputy Attorney General