The full story on government employees

Editorial by Burlington Times-News, May 16, 2014.

Before heading back to Raleigh for the short session, lawmakers predicted the legislature would devote its time this year to The Three E’s — education, environment, economy.

That’s a great list. And we’d like to add another “E” to it — employees, as in government employees.

North Carolina falls short on legislation related to workers employed by the public. Lawmakers could remedy the situation by passing The Government Transparency Act.

Unlike people in almost every other state, North Carolinians are denied access to pertinent information about the people they employ — people such as policemen, teachers, city managers, the person collecting your taxes.

If government employee is fired, it’s a mystery as to why. Did that person do wrong? Or was he or she wrongly dismissed?

It’s guesswork.

How ‘bout the county manager’s job performance? Good? Mediocre? Poor?

Guess again.

Hiring, firing, performance records of the people you employ — all government workers — are a big secret in North Carolina.

As we have said often, secrecy breeds suspicion and suspicion leads to speculation. More often than not, speculation is far worse than the actual situation. It can harm the employee and undermine the public’s trust in government.

Newspapers have been working to open public access to government workers’ personnel files by packing transparency legislation in the 2011 and 2013 long legislative sessions.

Lawmakers, however, have turned their backs on opening public employees’ personnel records by failing to consider The Government Transparency Act in any committee, much less the House or Senate.

While the most recent attempt to give North Carolinians access to their employees’ personnel files began three years ago, the effort actually dates back to 1997.

That’s when Sen. Roy Cooper, now N.C. attorney general, proposed the “Disciplinary Disclosure Act.” It would have given the public some access to the personnel records of their employees.

Cooper’s effort died when lawmakers bowed to the pressure of the League of Municipalities, County Commissioners Association, Association of Educations and the Sheriffs Association.

Why would these groups want to hide pubic employee records from the public?

We’re all left to speculate.

The one avenue North Carolinians did have to access a public employee’s personnel record was securing permission from the courts. That glimmer of hope was darkened in 2010 when the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled against the city of Winston-Salem in a case involving the testimony of city police in an unsolved sexual assault case. Transcripts were barred from public inspection by the court.

North Carolinians have had to put up with secrecy about their employees long enough. It’s time for that to change. If local lawmakers truly want to serve their constituents, they will spend time during the current short session to build support for The Government Transparency Act.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/opinion/our-opinion/lawmakers-could-ensure-the-full-story-1.320456