
A Suitable-to-Know ask for submitted by the Sunshine-Gazette to acquire distinct salaries of a few county workforce has been partially granted by the county authorities.
At their March 10 assembly, the Lycoming County Commissioners accepted new work titles for positions and in some scenarios changes in fork out grades for staff in the Information Expert services Section.
At the time the county refused to launch the particular salaries but did disclose income ranges for the positions primarily based on pay back grades.
The income figures sought by the Sun-Gazette involved staff whose pay back grades had been raised to 11, which has a wage array of $55,818.82 to $82,776.05.
The salary details launched by the county subsequent the ask for involved: director of elections and registration, $58,106.27 and senior application analyst, $66,877.68.
Facts was also asked for on the income of the Senior Technology Administrator, but that was denied as the placement has not been loaded.
In an e-mail to the Sunshine-Gazette, county officials at first cited Personally Identifiable Information (PII), information and facts that makes a human being effortlessly identifiable, for the motive to not release specific income amounts.
Melissa Melewsky, media legislation counsel at the PA NewsMedia Association, responded to that argument.
“I’ve been in this function for almost 16 decades, and I have hardly ever suggested a media corporation not to publish community personnel income information and facts for the reason that it’s ‘personally identifiable information’ or ‘PII’ that is not even a outlined term” less than the correct-to-know law, Melewsky mentioned. “On the contrary, I often make crystal clear that public employee name, job title, salary, work agreement, length of assistance, and any other payments are expressly general public less than the Right to Know regulation, portion 708(b)(6). The county has a lawful obligation to present accessibility to this data, the push has a Constitutional proper to publish general public facts these types of as public staff wage info, and you are well within your legal rights to do so. It is also truly worth noting that the public has a proper to find out this data from you without government interference.”
“Additionally, it is significant to take note that PA regulation expressly requires the point out-level companies to deliver this kind of public facts proactively by way of the PennWATCH technique where you can see accurately how considerably just about every state staff earns,” Melewsky ongoing. “The PennWATCH act recognizes that the public has a right to know how its money is spent, and mainly because accessibility to community personnel salary details is so important, the regulation areas an affirmative lawful duty on condition organizations to supply it by way of PennWATCH, even if no one requests it. General public obtain — and the accountability that flows from it — is no fewer essential at the county level.”








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