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 North Carolina Commissioner of Motor Vehicles asked whether DMV had to release a list of employees and former employees receiving disability income. She said DMV already had a list showing only each person's name and disability-income amount, with no details about the disability or why the person qualified. The Attorney General's office concluded that this existing list was a public record and should be released.

The opinion explained that G.S. § 126-22 generally protected state personnel files, while § 126-23 made specified personnel information public, including salary. It cited Bridges v. City of Charlotte for a broad meaning of salary that included retirement benefits, and concluded that disability income also counted as salary. It also reasoned that the status of receiving disability income fit the statute's provisions about changes in position classification and current assignment.

The conclusion was expressly conditional: assuming DMV had the described record of names and amounts, the list had to be disclosed. The opinion did not discuss creating a new list in response to a request or disclosing medical particulars omitted from the existing record.

Currency note

This opinion applied North Carolina personnel-records law in 1997. Check current law before disclosing or requesting disability-income information today.

Common questions

Did the opinion require DMV to release a list it already maintained?

Yes. It concluded that the described existing list of names and disability-income amounts was a public record and should be released.

Did it require an agency to compile a new list for a requester?

No. Its conclusion assumed that DMV already had the list. It did not analyze any duty to create a record.

Did the list include the reasons for a person's disability income?

The request described a list containing only names and amounts. The opinion did not decide disclosure of medical or eligibility details outside that list.

Source

• Landing page: https://ncdoj.gov/opinions/public-records-employee-personnel-information/

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