Confidential State Personnel Information

Subject:

N.C.G.S. 120-19; 126-24(3)

Requested By Honorable John T. Henley President Pro Tempore of the Senate

Honorable Carl J. Stewart, Jr. Speaker of the House of Representatives

Question: Must a member of the General Assembly also be a member of a Committee of the General Assembly, investigative or otherwise, to envoke N.C.G.S. 120-19 to gain access to otherwise confidential state personnel information?

Conclusion: No, so long as the information sought is, or appears necessary to the fulfillment of the requestor’s duties and responsibilities as a member of the General Assembly.

Article 7 of Chapter 126 of the General Statutes of North Carolina deals generally with information contained in the personnel files of State employees. Some of the information contained in these personnel files is considered public information available to any citizen upon request. N.C.G.S. 126-23. However, the majority of information contained in employee personnel files is considered confidential, and may be released only to certain statutorily designated individuals, among those being "(members) of the General Assembly who may inspect and examine personnel records under the authority of G.S. 129-19." N.C.G.S. 126.24(3).

N.C.G.S. 120-19 provides:

"All officers, agents, agencies and departments of the State are required to give to any committee of the General Assembly, upon request, all information and all data within their possession, or ascertainable from their records. This requirement is mandatory and shall include requests made by any individual member of the General Assembly or any of its committees or chairmen thereof." (Emphasis added)

Although N.C.G.S. 120-19 is subject to a different interpretation, we conclude that this statute allows "any individual member of the General Assembly" to request information contained in the personnel records of a State employee which is otherwise considered confidential, notwithstanding the fact that at the time the request is made, the individual member of the General Assembly is not acting in his capacity as a member of some committee of the General Assembly. We assume, of course, that in making the request the member feels that such information is necessary to fulfill his responsibilities and duties as a member of the General Assembly.

Rufus L. Edmisten Attorney General

James F. Bullock Senior Deputy Attorney General