Weighing in

Commenters at Huckleberries Online went round and round about a decision by an Idaho judge to force the city of Coeur d’Alene to reveal the first names of all its employees.

Wayne Hoffman, executive director of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, had requested the names and salaries of Coeur d’Alene’s 300-plus employees; the city withheld the first names, arguing that the names would reveal workers’ genders. First District Judge Charles Hosack ruled Friday that the requirement to disclose public information trumped the requirement to conceal gender.

Here is an edited excerpt from HBO:

Charlie: For the sake of transparency, name names and salaries; after all, it is coming out of our tax dollars.

Phaedrus: For those who are acting like this is a no-brainer, y’all might make an effort to read and understand the judge’s comments; it seems he agreed that there are 2 conflicting statutes that required clarification.

zz: It’s about time that this was cleared up. Maybe it’s about time that (city attorney) Mike Gridley retires, as there have been a number of times that he has gotten the wrong slant on the law.

Cis: I guess I am the only one who thinks this is NOT a good idea. I can understand the wages of the mayor, council person and etc. Elected officials … But not every employee… It is never a good idea to have employees know how much each person earns. No matter what the company is. It promotes jealousy, and turmoil among employees wondering why some got raises and some did not.

Spokelooneh: This is not comparable with the private sector. Public sector jobs typically have detailed job descriptions and, not unlike in the military and federal civil service, every position has a defined range of salary, and that’s all public knowledge. As the data is easily obtainable by cross reference, there is actually nothing here for the city of CdA to hide. …

Phaedrus: The city didn’t try to hide anything, they released last names, first initials and all the other data requested; the city attorney withheld first names due to a state statute that prohibits the release … that identifies gender. … The city attorney’s thinking on the matter was logical. He wanted a judge to rule on it so the conflicting statutes would be clearly defined.

Sue: When faced with possibly conflicting guidelines, I’d like to see government agencies err on the side of openness. The city’s actions speak to their attitude about transparency, using something as a loophole to keep information secret. And then, it took a lawsuit to get them to change their mind. … Public information is public information, like it or not.