Personnel information on salaries, disciplinary actions and hiring decisions for public employees could be more available to taxpayers under legislation a Republican leader says he will seek to introduce in the coming session.
Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger said he wants to draft legislation that would make public salary and employment histories, disciplinary actions such as suspensions or firings, and hiring information about successful job applicants. He said making that information public shows that government is open to the taxpayers who pay the bills, and may prevent cases in which employees who have behaved badly can move quietly from one agency to another.
"You've got the principle of the information should be available to the public, by itself," said Berger, a Rockingham County Republican. "But then you've got the specific instances of harm caused to some citizen or some child that might have been prevented."
The legislation would be a major overhaul for a personnel law that has been on the books since 1975. A series published in The News & Observer this week, "Keeping Secrets," found the law to be among the most secretive in the nation. The result is that the public often receives little information regarding employees who have received big pay raises over several years, were hired through patronage or nepotism, or behaved badly on the job. Berger said he was particularly troubled by the case of a New Hanover County teacher who had been twice suspended for inappropriate contact with a student, but then resigned and was hired by the Pitt County school district. Pitt County officials did not know about the suspensions.
Jessica Wishnask is now serving prison time for taking indecent liberties with a minor after Wilmington police caught her "in intimate contact" with the same 15-year-old student.
Berger, a Republican, would need agreement from Democrats to change the law. Recently, other legislative leaders and Gov. Bev Perdue indicated that the personnel law was too restrictive, but they differed on what needed to be changed.
Perdue, for example, said only salary and employment histories should be public, while Senate leader Marc Basnight said the case of former state trooper Michael Steele suggests that those convicted of serious felonies on the job should not expect their personnel files to remain closed.
The Highway Patrol and Crime Control Secretary Reuben Young have declined to open Steele's personnel and training files after he was convicted of abducting three women while on patrol in Orange County and attempting to have sex with them.
Perdue, a New Bern Democrat, could not be reached for comment this week. A spokesman for Basnight said he has asked three Democratic senators from districts with a high percentage of state employees to examine the law and make recommendations. The senators are Doug Berger of Youngsville, Dan Blue of Raleigh and Steve Goss of Boone.
Blue, a former House speaker, said the law should be examined.
"You've identified some key areas now where the inquiry is legitimate," Blue said. "There has to be some reason, other than just an inconvenience, as to why generally the public ought not to be able to get access."
Lawmakers do not typically take on new issues in sessions during even-numbered years. But House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, said if House members show the willingness to tackle the issue this session, which begins May 12, he is receptive to having it move forward.
State Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat who has championed open government legislation, said he and his colleagues should take up reforms. Given the tight budget situation, he expects lawmakers will have a longer session than usual, which would give them the time to take it up.
Public employee groups and government organizations such as the N.C. League of Municipalities have long resisted allowing more personnel information to be public. They worry that it will lead to employee abuses and prevent good candidates from applying for public jobs.
Jane Pinsky, director of the N.C. Coalition on Lobbying & Government Reform, a nonpartisan government watchdog, welcomed Phil Berger's efforts. She said the personnel law has long been on the coalition's list for reform.
