Note regarding the July 25 email below:
- July 25 is the last possible day under Maryland’s Public Information Act to be responsive to the June 28 Public Information Act request because the Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) summer workweek ends on Thursday and the next workday would be July 29–more than 30 days after the Public Information Act request was submitted.
- The July 25 response does not answer the longtime questions (e.g., see July 18 email below) regarding which specific pay codes AACPS treated as exempt from public disclosure under Maryland’s Public Information Act.
- The July 25 response in response to the June 28 Public Information Act request was too late to provide timely information for the July 19 Washington Post op-ed.
From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2019 9:48 AM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Snider:
This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking compensation and other data for Anne Arundel County Public Schools employees.
A document responsive to your request that contains information related to compensation is attached to this email. As detailed in your August 2015 and August 2018 inquiries requesting similar information, information about specific employee leave is part of that employee’s personnel record and not disclosable under § 4-311. Information regarding employee discipline is also part of an employee’s personnel record and not disclosable under § 4-311.
In the event you disagree with any determination regarding this Maryland Public Information Act request, you have the right to seek review or remedy, in accordance with GP §4-1B-01 through §4-1B-04, with Maryland Public Access Ombudsman Lisa Kershner at lkershner@oag.state.md.us, (410) 576-7037, or by mail at the Office of the Attorney General, 200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202. Under GP §4-362, you also have the right to file a complaint in Circuit Court requesting a review of this decision.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.
Sincerely,
Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools
From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2019 9:21 AM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Mosier:
It has been three weeks since I filed my Public Information Act request (see email below). Please let me know 1) when you plan to fulfill it and 2) when you do, whether you intend to answer my questions regarding the data you claim are exempt from disclosure (see email below).
I recognize that in the past you have often run out the clock. I hope you won’t choose to do so this time.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider
From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2019 5:01 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Mosier:
Thank you for the first time disclosing in writing that you have been withholding employee pay code data covering both leave and discipline.
For your convenience, I’ve copied below the 72 pay codes you’ve previously said are used as part of the AACPS payroll system.
Please put an “x” next to each pay code excluded under the leave and discipline exemptions you are now claiming.
As a matter of standard legal construction, the above claim entails an additional claim that the only two categories of pay code data that are exempt from public disclosure under Maryland’s Public Information Act relate to leave and discipline. If you would now like to amend that claim, please put a “$” next to each additional pay code that you are claiming is exempt.
Pay Pay
Code Code Description
- ACCPY Bus Accident Delay
- ADJPY Adjust Pay
- ADPPY Alternative Drug Program
- AEDPY Evening High School Annapolis – Glen Burnie – Meade Severna Park – South River
- AMO1 AMO Assignment Stipend
- AMO2 AMO Performance Bonus
- ANLPO Annual Leave Payoff
- APCPY Advanced Prof Cert Stipend
- ATUPY Anti-Tobacco Program
- BASPY Sub Bus Aide Pay
- BDSPY Sub Bus Driver Pay
- BOEAL Board Member Allowance Governor\’s Approval of HB1607 (7-1-08)
- BOEPY Board Member Pay Governor\’s approval of HB1607 (7-1-08)
- BONPY Bonus Pay/Signing Bonus
- BRDPY Bus Breakdown Delay
- COAPY Coach Pay
- CROOM Classroom Supplies
- CTHPO Comp Time Hourly Payoff
- DCPAY Department Chair Pay
- DINPY Dinner Pay
- DRYPY Bus Dry Run
- DTMPY Double Time
- ENROL Workshop Enrollment Fee
- EXTPY Executive Travel
- FSHPY Food Service Worker Hourly Pay
- FSSPY Substitute Food Service Worker Pay
- FSTPY Temp Food Service Worker Pay
- FTPPY Field Trip Pay
- HHPY Home & Hospital Pay
- HRLPY Hourly Pay
- IDTPY Interdisciplinary Team Leader
- INSPY Bus In-service Pay
- INTPY Interpreter Pay
- LDEPY Lead Teacher Pay
- LIFT Lift Differential
- LTMPY Lost Time Pay
- LWPPY Leave Without Pay
- MONPY Lunch Recess Monitor
- MSDPY MSDE Stipend
- MTGPY Meeting Pay
- NBCPY National Board Teacher Stipend
- NCCPY National Cert Counselor Stipend
- NCSPY National Cert Psych Stipend
- ONEPY One Time Pay
- OTMPY Overtime Pay
- PBDPO Personal Business Leave Payoff
- PDSPY Professional Development Pay
- PIPPY Bus Aide Parent Infant Program
- REGPY Regular Pay
- REIMB Reimbursement
- RELOC Relocation Payment
- RESPY Responsible Action Program
- RETRO Retro
- RGOPY Bus Other Work
- SALPY Salary Adjustment
- SBAPY Substitute Pay
- SCKPO Sick Leave Payoff
- SHFT1 Shift Differential
- SHIFT Shift Differential
- SPPPO Special Pay Plan
- SSPAY Summer School Pay
- ST3PY Food Service Satellite Travel Pay
- ST5PY Food Service Satellite Travel Pay
- STDPY Student Pay
- SUBPY Substitute Teacher Pay
- SUBTA Substitute TA Pay
- SUSPY Suspension Without Pay
- TEMPY Temporary Pay
- TRFPY Bus Traffic Delay
- TUIPY Tuition Reimbursement
- WCPA1 Workers Comp
- XDYPY Extended Day Pay
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider
From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2019 8:14 AM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Snider:
This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking information related to compensation of Anne Arundel County Public Schools employees.
This request has been forwarded to the appropriate staff, and pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act, we will provide that information which is public within 30 days of your request, and certainly sooner if it is readily available. Please note that the Act does not require an agency to create new documents to satisfy a request.
As has been the case in your previous requests on this topic, information about specific employee leave is part of that employee’s personnel record and not disclosable under § 4-311. Information regarding employee discipline is also part of an employee’s personnel record and not disclosable under § 4-311. Therefore, AACPS is denying your request for any data, including pay codes, related to these two circumstances.
As you may be aware, §4-206 (b) allows a custodian to “charge a reasonable fee for search for, preparation of, and reproduction of a public record.” Under the provisions of the Act, the first two hours of labor would be provided free of charge. You would be responsible for reimbursing Anne Arundel County Public Schools for the labor required to complete all other research and compilation of documents.
If we determine that there will be a charge to you, we will notify you before proceeding with your request.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.
Sincerely,
Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools
From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2019 4:22 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Mosier:
Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request the FY2019 non-exempt compensation information for all AACPS employees, broken down by pay code, in Excel, a machine-readable format. This should include the following fields for FY2019 for each employee broken down by paycode: Employee ID, Last Name, First Name, Middle Name, Title Code, Title Description, Unit #, Work Location, FTE, Total Salary, Pay Code, Pay Category (Pay Code Description), Pay Code Amount, Work Cycle, Grade, Step, Degree, Hire/Seniority Date, and Years Experience. The total salary field should be included in each record and the information broken down by pay code for each employee.
In the past, when I have made this type of compensation request, you have arbitrarily excluded pay codes without either disclosing the excluded pay codes or justifying the claimed exemptions under Maryland’s Public Information Act. I trust that this time you will both disclose and justify any excluded pay codes. If you refuse to disclose which pay codes you have excluded (which, of course, would also obviate the need for justifying particular pay code exclusions), please cite the Maryland Public Information Act provision that you claim allows you to do that. In past years, when you did provide all pay codes, there were a variety of other errors or omissions in what was provided, such as not identifying the FTE figure with the year of the compensation, that rendered the data unusable for analysis purposes. I thank you for fixing those omissions (aka “mistakes”).
I hope that if this time AACPS does provide all the pay codes, one of the previous omissions that rendered the data useless won’t crop up again.
Please charge me no more than the amount you have charged the Capital or individual AACPS Board of Education members for copying similar records. My estimate is that the per se downloading of the requested records from your multi-million dollar payroll system should take one of your payroll experts no more than a few seconds. Forwarding them to you as an email attachment should then take only a few more seconds.
Please email me the requested data as an email attachment.
If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information. As you know, Maryland law specifies that public employee compensation is public information.
Your fulfillment, in good faith and within the thirty calendar days required by the Public Information Act, would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse