Supreme Court affirms your right to know

SAN FRANCISCO
August 28, 2007 12:01am

Citizens have the right to know how much public employees are being paid and the hiring and firing patterns of police departments, the California Supreme Court says in two rulings Monday.

The state’s highest court ruled that Oakland was wrong in trying to keep secret how much public employees were paid. The Contra Costa Times went to court when its efforts to find out who was pulling down $100,000 or more a year were blocked.

“The salary information sought by the Newspapers in the present case … is not private information that happens to be collected in the records of a public entity. Rather, it is information regarding an aspect of government operations, the disclosure of which contributes to the public’s understanding and oversight of those operations by allowing interested parties to monitor the expenditure of public funds,” the ruling says. “The disclosure of such information … does not violate the right of privacy protected by the California Constitution.”

The Los Angeles Times sought the hiring, firing and transfer records of police as it tried to determine the veracity of a tip that police officers who were fired by one department quickly landed jobs with other law enforcement offices.

“The public’s interest in the qualifications and conduct of peace officers is substantial, a circumstance that both diminishes and counterbalances any expectation officers may have that their names and employment as peace officers will be confidential,” the ruling says. “The public clearly has a legitimate interest in the matters that the Times seeks to investigate.”