This is an opinion of the Commissioner of Administration issued pursuant to section 13.072 of Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13 - the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. It is based on the facts and information available to the Commissioner as described below.

Facts and Procedural History:

For purposes of simplification, the information provided by the citizen who requested this opinion and the response from the government entity are presented in summary form. Copies of the detailed submission are on file at the offices of PIPA and are available for public inspection.

In a letter dated November 4, 1994, and received by the Commissioner on November 7, 1994, Mr. Andrew Coffey, a law clerk for the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper described attempts by reporters working for the paper to gain access to certain data maintained by the State Department of Labor and Industry, hereinafter Department. After providing some details about what the reporters requested, the response from the Department to the request and some discussion as to why the data in question are public, Mr. Coffey asked that the Commissioner issue an opinion on the issues stated in the Issue section below.

A summary of the detailed information provided by Mr. Coffey is as follows. Two reporters for the Star Tribune requested access to the public portions of workers' compensation documents relating to employees injured while working for a specific company. According to Mr. Coffey, the reporters were told that a member of the public could not search the Department's files by the name of a specific company even though the Department's computer has the capability to perform a search by company name. Also according to Mr. Coffey, the reporters were told that workers' compensation files are private until the cases are adjudicated, at which point the files become public. However, Mr. Coffey stated that the adjudicated files could not be accessed by the public unless the member of the public provided the name of a specific employee whose case had been adjudicated. Mr. Coffey went on to make a number of arguments, based on Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13 and other specific statutory provisions, that attacked the positions taken by the Department as he had described those positions.

In response to Mr. Coffey's request, PIPA, on behalf of the Commissioner wrote to Mr. John B. Lennes, Jr., the Commissioner of the Department. The purposes of this letter, dated November 8, 1994, were to inform Mr. Lennes of Mr. Coffey's request, to provide a copy of the request to the Department and to ask the Department or its attorney to provide information or support for the Department's position and to inform the Department of the date by which the Commissioner was required to issue this opinion.

On November 17, 1994, PIPA received a letter of response from Commissioner Lennes. In that letter, Commissioner Lennes stated that workers' compensation files at the Department contain data to which access is restricted under Minnesota Statutes Section 176.231. He also mentioned that the files are identified by social security numbers that are private and are also likely to contain private rehabilitation data. In addition, Commissioner Lennes pointed out that the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Minnesota Human Rights Act constrain disclosure about workers' compensation claims. He did not elaborate on the applicability of those two acts to an issue of public access to data under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13.

Mr. Lennes acknowledged that hearings before a compensation judge are public under Minnesota Statutes Section 176.401 and that the record of an appeal would be public. However, he added that it was not clear whether the reporters actually asked for a file under the name of the specific company in instances where the claim made by the worker had been the subject of a public hearing. He stated that the reporters did not present authorization from an employer or employee to provide access. He pointed out that there was no identification of who within the Department had allegedly told the reporters that the public could not search files by the name of an employer. He did acknowledge that the Department's files are identified by both employee and employer name and that the reporters were told they could get access by obtaining an authorization or by making a request for summary data in writing.

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Issues:

In his request for an opinion, Mr. Coffey asked the Commissioner to address the following issues: Are members of the public entitled to gain access to files relating to workers' compensation through use of a company name as the search criterion? Is the public entitled to gain access to those data in the worker's compensation files that are not specifically classified as not public by statute?

Discussion:

Minnesota Statues Section 13.03, subdivision 1, states the general rule that all government data are accessible by the public unless there is a statute or federal law that classifies certain data as not public. In addition to stating this presumption of public access, the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, hereinafter Act or Chapter 13, also imposes an obligation on government entities to keep their records containing government data in an arrangement and condition as to make them easily accessible for convenient use by the public. As the Commissioner pointed out in Opinion Number 94-032, dated August 11, 1994 and relating to access to data at the state Department of Public Safety, this language concerning convenient use has been a part of Minnesota Law since 1941.

In this instance, as acknowledged by the Department, the capability exists for the Department to search its files by the name of the employer. When the reporters made their initial request to the Department, it appears that they asked for a search of the files by employer name. If the search by employer would provide access to public data then there appears to be no basis on which the Department could reasonably rely to reply to the reporters that a search by employer name would not be done.

However, in the situation described by both the newspaper and the Department, the issue of whether or not the Department's files could be searched by employer name is intertwined with the issue of whether a search by employer name would provide access to data that are classified as public.

The Department's position is that, pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Section 176.231, the Department's files contain reports that cannot be disclosed to the public without the authorization of the employers or employees who are the subject of those reports. In addition, the Department cites the social security number and rehabilitation data provisions of Sections 13.49 and 13.791 of Chapter 13 as sections of statute that classify certain data in files of the Department as private data. In addition, the Department discussed civil rights acts that limit disclosure about workers' compensation claims but the Department did not elaborate on how these civil rights acts limit public access to data about a company's experience with workers' compensation claims if data about the workers themselves were not disclosed.

It is clear that any data contained in reports submitted to the Department pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Section 176.231 cannot be disclosed to the public. (See Minnesota Statutes Section 176.231, subdivisions 8 and 9.) It is clear that if the files of the Department contain rehabilitation data and the social security number of a workers' compensation claimant, those data are classified as private by Minnesota Statues Sections 13.49 and 13.791. It is also clear, as acknowledged by the Department that the contents of files made a part of the record of a hearing before a compensation judge of the Office of Administrative hearing are public data. It appears, given the response of the Department, that any government data maintained by the Department in its administration of the workers' compensation system, that are not reports provided to the Department pursuant to Minnesota statutes Section 176.231 and are not social security numbers or rehabilitation data, are public data by virtue of the operation of Minnesota Statutes Section 13.03.

The reporters for the Star Tribune seek access to data about a company. Data maintained about a company are data not on individuals for purposes of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. (See Minnesota Statutes Section 13.02, subdivisions 4 and 5.) With the exception of the basis for nondisclosure of government data provided by Minnesota Statutes Section 176.231, the other not public classifications cited by the Department are for data on individuals. With the exception of data contained in the reports received by the Department pursuant to Section 176.231, the operation of Section 13.03 of the Act logically dictates that data maintained by the Department about employers, are public data.

It appears that part of the Department's concern for providing public access to the data sought by the newspaper rests in an administrative reality that the Department is maintaining files that contain both public and not public data. However, it is clear that Chapter 13 requires agencies in that kind of circumstance to separate public from not public data and to make the public data accessible by the public. (See Minnesota Statutes Section 13.03, subdivisions 1 through 3.) The obligation of government entities to perform this separation of data has been recently upheld by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. (See Northwest Publications, Inc. v. City of Bloomington, 499 N.W.2d 509 (Minn. App. 1993).)

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Opinion:

My opinion on the issues raised by Mr. Coffey is as follows:

1. As to issue 1, if the Department has the capability of providing access to its public data by the name of an employer, that access, consistent with the requirements of Minnesota Statutes Section 13.03, subdivision 1, should be provided.
2. As to issue 2, data maintained by the Department are subject to the presumption stated in Minnesota Statues Section 13.03, subdivision 1, that, subject to certain exceptions, all government data are public. To the extent that the Department is maintaining public data in files that also contain not public data, it is the Department's responsibility, under Minnesota Statutes Section 13.03, subdivisions 1 through 3, to make the public data available to the public.

Signed:

Debra Rae Anderson
Commissioner

Dated: December 14, 1994