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Article X - Personnel Records

Section 1. Personnel Records Maintenance

Such personnel records as are necessary for the proper administration of the personnel system shall be maintained by the corresponding appointing authority or Personnel Department. The County shall maintain in personnel records only information that is necessary and relevant to accomplishing legitimate personnel administration needs.

Section 2. Information Open to the Public

The following information on each County employee is public information:

A. Name

B. Age

C. Date of original employment or appointment to County service

D. Current position title

E. Current salary

F. Date and amount of most recent change in salary

G. Date of most recent promotion, demotion, transfer, suspension, separation, or other change in position classification

H. Department to which the employee is currently assigned

Section 3. Access to Personnel Records

As required by G. S. 153A-98, any person may have access to the information listed in Section 2 of this article for the purpose of inspection, examination, and copying, during the regular business hours, subject only to such rules and regulations for the safekeeping of public records as the Board of County Commissioners may adopt. Any person denied access to any record shall have a right to compel compliance with these provisions by application to a court for writ of mandamus or other appropriate relief.

Section 4. Confidential Information

All information contained in a County employee's personnel file, other than the information listed in Section 2 of this article, shall be maintained as confidential in accordance with the requirement of G. S. 153A-98 and shall be open to public inspection only in the following instances:

A. The employee or his duly authorized agent may examine all portions of the employee's personnel file, except (1) letters of reference solicited before employment and (2) information concerning a medical disability, mental or physical, that a prudent physician would not divulge to his patient.

B. A licensed physician designated in writing by the employee may examine the employee's medical record.

C. A County employee having supervisory authority over another employee may examine all material in the employee's personnel file.

D. By order of a court of competent jurisdiction, any person may examine all material in the employee's personnel file.

E. An official of any agency of the state or federal government, or any political subdivision of the state, may inspect any portion of a personnel file when such information is deemed by the corresponding appointing authority or County Manager to be necessary and essential to the pursuance of a proper function of the inspecting agency, but no information shall be divulged for the purpose of assisting in a criminal prosecution of the employee or for the purpose of assisting in an investigation of the employee's tax liability.

F. Each individual requesting access to confidential information shall be required to submit satisfactory proof of identity.

G. A record shall be made of each disclosure and placed in the employee's file (except of disclosures to the employee and the supervisor).

Section 5. Remedies of Employees Objecting to Material in File

An employee who objects to material in his or her personnel file may place in the file a statement relating to the material the employee considers to be inaccurate or misleading. The employee may seek the removal of such material in accordance with established grievance procedure.

Section 6. Penalty for Permitting Unauthorized Access to Confidential File(s)

Any public official or employee who knowingly and willfully permits any person to have access to any confidential information contained in an employee personnel file, except as expressly authorized by the designated custodian, may be judged guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500).

Section 7. Penalty for Unauthorized Examining and/or Copying of Confidential Material

Any person, not specifically authorized to have access to a personnel file designated as confidential, who shall knowingly and willfully examine, remove or copy any portion of a confidential personnel file may be judged guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500).

Section 8. Destruction of Records

No public official may destroy, sell, loan, or otherwise dispose of any public record, except in accordance with G.S. 121-5(b), without the consent of the State Department of Cultural Resources. Whoever unlawfully removes a public record from the office where it is usually kept, or whoever alters, defaces, mutilates or destroys it shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than five hundred dollars ($500) as provided in G.S. 132-3.