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October 30, 2000; Intermediate School District 287
10/30/2000 10:14:43 AM
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 presented by the entity that requested this opinion. Copies of the complete submissions are on file at the offices of IPA and, except for any data classified as not public, are available for public access.On September 7, 2000, IPA received a letter dated September 5, 2000, from Ann Goering and Margaret Skelton. In their letter, Ms. Goering and Ms. Skelton requested that the Commissioner issue an opinion regarding the classification of certain data that Intermediate School District 287 maintains. A summary of the facts is as follows. Ms. Goering and Ms. Skelton wrote: We are requesting an opinion on issues that have arisen in connection with filling several vacancies for social worker and chemical/mental health coordinator positions. The administration of the School District appointed an interview team made up of several employees of the District. No Board members were part of the team. The team reviewed applications of and selected candidates from the pool of applicants to interview. After interviewing eight candidates for the several positions, the team made recommendations to the School Board. The Intermediate District has recently received inquiries...requesting the names of all persons that the team interviewed for the positions...has also requested the home addresses and phone numbers of the Intermediate School Board members. Issue:
In their request for an opinion, Ms. Goering and Ms. Skelton asked the Commissioner to address the following issues:
Discussion:
Issue 1:Data about applicants for employment are classified at Minnesota Statutes, section 13.43, subdivision 3. For purposes of Chapter 13, a finalist is an individual who is selected to be interviewed by the appointing authority prior to selection. Names of finalists are public. In their opinion request, Ms. Goering and Ms. Skelton wrote: Intermediate District 287 asserts that the appointing authority for employees of the District is the Intermediate School Board. The Intermediate District is a statutorily authorized combination of two or more independent school districts for purposes of offering integrated services. Minn. Stat. section136D.01; section136D.21. The Intermediate School Board has the same powers granted by law to the participating school districts. Minn. Stat. section136D.24. The board of each participating district, and therefore the Intermediate School Board is the only entity that has the statutory authority to hire employees for a school district. Minn. Stat. section122B.02 subd. 14; section123B.09 subd 6; section122A.40, subd. 3; section122A.44, subd. 1. Therefore, they wrote, the names of the applicants that the search team interviews are not public. The names of any applicants that are then chosen to be interviewed by the School Board, the appointing authority, are public. The Commissioner concurs with the District's analysis. In this case, because the School Board, not the selection committee, is the appointing authority, the names of applicants that the selection committee interviews are not public. The names of any applicants the School Board chooses to interview are public. Issue 2:
Data about employees are classified at section 13.43. Subdivision 1 of section 13.43 defines personnel data as data on individuals collected because the individual is or was an employee of or an applicant for employment by, performs services on a voluntary basis for, acts as an independent contractor with a government entity or is a member of or an applicant for an advisory board or commission. Subdivision 2 of section 13.43 classifies specific types of personnel data as public, and subdivision 4 classifies all remaining personnel data as private.
In their opinion request, Ms. Goering and Ms. Skelton wrote: The Intermediate School District asserts that its Board members are employees. Members of the Intermediate School Board are appointed to their positions and provided per diem compensation for services provided to the Intermediate School Board. It is the District's position that as employees, the School Board member's home addresses and telephone numbers are not classified as public data under Minn. Stat. section13.43... As stated, Intermediate School District 287 is a combination of two more independent school districts for purposes of offering integrated services. Minn. Stat. section136D.01; section136D.21. The boards of the member school districts appoint individuals to the Intermediate School Board. Many of these appointees are current or former school board members of those districts. The data collected on members of the Intermediate School Board, including their home addresses and telephone numbers, is the direct result of their service on the governing board of the other political subdivision, which may also classify these individuals as employees. In other instances, the member districts have appointed former school district employees to the District 287 Board. In those cases, the information District 287 has on these people is a direct result of their having been employees of the member district. Therefore, data on these Board members must be treated in the same manner as other personnel data. It may be argued that the Board members are members of an advisory board or commission. If this were the case, the names and addresses would be public. The intermediate District Board is not, however, an advisory board of [sic] commission. It is a governing board vested with the care, management, and control of the Intermediate School District. SeeMinn. Stat. section123B.09, Subd. 1. The members of the Board are therefore employees of the District. Pursuant to the intermediate school district statute, Minnesota Statutes, section 136D.21, et. seq., intermediate school board members may be board members of other school boards, employees of school districts, or other persons. In this instance, the Commissioner agrees with the District's position that its School Board members are employees. However, the Commissioner also acknowledges that this conclusion may lead to strange results, i.e., if one of the District 287 board members is a board member of school district X, and school district X has determined that its elected board members are not employees, home addresses and telephone numbers about that board member will be public (pursuant to section 13.03, subdivision 1) at district X and not public at District 287. Despite this possibility, the Commissioner is of the opinion that data about the District 287 Board Members are properly classified at section 13.43. Issue 3:
As stated above, the District has determined, for purposes of Chapter 13, that Intermediate School Board members are employees of the District. Data about them are therefore classified at section 13.43. Subdivision 1 of section 13.43 sets forth the various types of personnel data that are public. Because home addresses and home telephone numbers are not listed as public, they are classified as private pursuant to subdivision 4 of section 13.43. (A work number and work address, however, are public.)
Opinion:Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issues that Ms. Goering and Ms. Skelton raised is as follows:
Signed: David F. Fisher
Dated: October 30, 2000 |
Personnel data
Applicant data
Finalist for public employment (13.43, subd. 3)
Selection committee/search team
