The Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the requirement of OPRA that certain information found in a personnel record, including the reason for an employee’s separation from public service, is not confidential. As a result, the Court ordered disclosure of the portion of an exempt personnel record, an internal agency settlement agreement, that showed the reason for the separation of a county employee. Libertarians for Transparent Govt v. Cumberland County.

The Court’s opinion breaks no new ground, as OPRA itself, as well as prior Supreme Court precedent, is clear that certain personnel information is public; specifically, “an individual’s name, title,
position, salary, payroll record, length of service, date of separation and the reason therefor, and the amount and type of any pension received….” Because part of the settlement agreement in question in Libertarians showed the reason for the employee’s separation, the Court determined that the County erred in withholding the entire document, and ordered it to release a redacted version that would disclose the separation information.

Crucially, the Court rejected the main argument advanced by the requestor–that a settlement resolving an internal disciplinary action is not an exempt personnel record. In other words, the requestor asked the Court to hold that all such settlements are completely public. This result would be contrary to long settled law, and would cast doubt on the confidential status of all other personnel records.

The Court refused to go down this path. It unambiguously stated that all internal settlement agreements are personnel records that are not disclosable. Only the portion containing the separation reason must be disclosed.