April 5, 1993
Mr. John M. Bahner, Jr. Bahner & Medlin PO Drawer 1210 Albemarle, NC 28002-1210
RE: Advisory Opinion; G.S. 132-6; G.S. 115C-319; Public Records; Employee Travel Expense Records
Dear Mr. Bahner:
The Albemarle County Board of Education has received a request from a radio station and newspaper for copies of the travel expense records of the former superintendent of the school system. By letter dated April 2, 1992, you asked for our opinion whether the documents requested are public records that must be disclosed pursuant to G.S. 132-6 or whether they are part of the personnel file of the former superintendent protected from disclosure by G.S. 115C319-321.
We have examined the copy of the public records request made by the radio station and newspaper, and in our opinion, the documents are public records with should be disclosed.
G.S. 115C-319 provides that the personnel file of an employee of former employee of a local school board is not a public record. "Personnel file" is defined to mean: "any information gathered by the local board of education…which information relates to the individuals’s application, selection, non-selection, promotion, demotion, transfer, leave, salary, suspension, performance evaluation, disciplinary action or termination of employment wherever located in whatever form." Id. This is a broad exemption and a plausible argument can be made that it covers the superintendent’s travel record in this instance because they may relate to the termination of his employment. In our opinion, however, this plausible argument must give way to the rule that the Public Records Law is to be construed broadly in favor of public access and the corollary rule that an exemption to the Public Records Law will be limited to its plain words. News and Observer Publishing Co. v. Poole, 330 N.C.465, 412 S.E.2d 71 (1992). Travel records relate to the expenditure of public funds; any relationship to the superintendents employment is secondary or incidental. Thus, in our opinion, G. S. 115C-119 does not apply in this instance, and superintendents travel records should be treated as public records.
We add that any written reports made to or by the Board of Education regarding the termination of the superintendent’s employment would plainly fall within the definition of "personnel file" in
G.S. 115C-319, and thus not be subject to disclosure even though the reports might be based on or refer to travel expense documents.
Edwin M. Speas, Jr.
Senior Deputy Attorney General