OPEA asks judge to stop state from providing newspaper with information on state employees

A state employees group today asked an Oklahoma County judge to stop the state government from providing The Oklahoman with the birth dates and other basic personnel information on state workers.

A hearing on the injunction requested by the Oklahoma Public Employees Association has been set for April 7 before Judge Noma D. Gurich. (CJ-2010-2623, Oklahoma Public Employees Association v. Oklahoma Office of Personnel Management)

(Read the filing.)

On its Web site, OPEA said, "A person’s date of birth is the missing piece in the identity puzzle if someone is trying to commit fraud or harm an individual."

However, national experts on data privacy have repeatedly said a birth date alone is not sufficient information to steal a person's identity and that public records are not a source of data for identity thieves.

In February, The Oklahoman requested basic employee information, including dates of birth, payroll records and employee identification numbers, for all state employees.

A number of local government agencies have long provided the birth dates of their employees to media outlets with no reported instances of identity thefts caused by the disclosure. Birth dates are also available in voter registration files and in many other public records.

State law already exempts state workers' home addresses, home telephone numbers and Social Security numbers. Last legislative session, however, state Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, opened up the home addresses for OPEA's use, The Oklahoman reported Sunday. (Read related blog.)

Read coverage of OPEA's filing: State worker group seeks to block release of records, by Paul Monies, The Oklahoman, 3.30.10.

Joey Senat, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

OSU School of Journalism

Rep. Terrill makes state employee home addresses available to OPEA

Rep. Randy Terrill quietly opened up the confidential home addresses of state employees to the private employees group that advocates for state workers and to which he belongs, The Oklahoman reported Sunday.

The home addresses, home telephone numbers and Social Security numbers of state employees were exempted from the Open Records Act by state legislators in 1992. The same information for former state employees was exempted in 2003.

But in the closing days of last year's legislative session, The Oklahoman reported, a provision making the home addresses available to the Oklahoma Public Employees Association was tacked onto Terrill's HB 2245, the Oklahoma Criminal Illegal Alien Repatriation Act of 2009.

The OPEA named Terrill, a Republican from Moore, its "Legislator of the Year" for his effort to provide the state employee mailing list, the newspaper noted.

HB 2245 created a separate statute making the home addresses available to any organization that limits membership to state employees and has at least 2,000 members. (OKLA. STAT. tit. 74, § 3119)

Under the statute, the organization "may annually send one general mailing to all state employees." The Office of State Finance must first agree to the "method of providing a list of the names and addresses of the state employees to accomplish the mailing, while preserving the confidentiality of the list."

The Oklahoman reported that since the statute went into effect on June 2, "a spreadsheet of all state workers home addresses has twice been e-mailed to direct mail companies hired by OPEA."

Terrill is the House sponsor of SB 1753, which would exempt the birth dates of government employees from their personnel files.

Terrill recently said the bill likely won't be in its current form when it comes up for a vote in the House.

Watch The Oklahoman's strongly worded video editorial regarding Terrill and the OPEA.

Joey Senat, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Oklahoma State University