Responses to question regarding confidentiality of member records Compiled by NASRA August 2010 What information about public pension

plan participants is considered public? For example, names? Addresses? Salary history? Benefit amounts? Etc. Is the public record status a function of statute, case law, retirement system policy, or other edict?
The Retirement Systems of Alabamas disclosure practices are based on the states public records law, court decisions interpreting that law and retirement systems policy. RSA will generally disclose names of active and retired members, salary upon which contributions are made and benefit amounts. RSA will generally not disclose home addresses or beneficiary designations except on a need to know basis. RSA will generally not disclose health records, such as might be submitted in support of an application for disability retirement, except when required to do so by subpoena or other court order. RSA cooperates with law enforcement officers and agencies and supplies any information requested by a duly authorized law enforcement representative. The California Public Records Act dictates what gets disclosed. We disclose name and benefit amounts, and can disclose salary. We dont disclose addresses. Colorado law prohibits the release of member information. For Florida Retirement System Pension Plan participants there must be an exemption from public records law to withhold information upon request. For retirees, the names and addresses in list form are exempt from a public records request. For active members, the home addresses of certain members and their families are exempt from public records; this includes public safety officers, judicial officers, employees involved in hiring and firing, etc. The only information relative to member accounts we provide to the public is a list of names only. No financial (i.e. benefit amount) and no personal, (i.e. address). O.C.G.A. 47-1-14(b)(4) states any business, financial, or personal information in the possession of such retirement system concerning a party other than such retirement system is exempt from public inspection. Therefore, addresses, social security numbers, beneficiary information, salary, benefit amounts, etc. are not considered public information. The following records are exempt from disclosure: Except as provided in this subsection, all personnel records of a current or former public official other than the public official's public service or employment history, classification, pay grade and step, longevity, gross salary and salary history, status, workplace and employing agency. All other personnel information relating to a public employee or applicant including, but not limited to, information regarding sex, race, marital status, birth date, home address and telephone number, applications, testing and scoring materials, grievances, correspondence and performance evaluations, shall not be disclosed to the public without the employee's or applicant's written consent. Also, retired employees' and retired public officials' home addresses, home telephone numbers and other financial and nonfinancial membership records; active and inactive member financial and membership records and mortgage portfolio loan documents maintained by the public employee retirement system. We release names, zip code numbers, names of employers, salary, final rates of earnings, benefit amounts. This is as a result of statute and case law. By statute all information about participants is confidential. The statute provides as follows: Each members account and records shall be administered in a confidential manner and specific data regarding the member shall not be released unless the authorized in writing by the member; however, the board may release information to the employer or to other state and federal agencies as the board deems necessary. All member account information by statute is confidential. The two statutes directly concerning retirement system information in the Louisiana Public Records Law are La. R.S. 44:15, exempting from disclosure information concerning disability retirement and associated medical records, and R.S. 44:16, which limits

Alabama

California Colorado PERA Florida

Georgia TRS Georgia ERS

Idaho PERS

Illinois MRF

Kansas PERS Kentucky TRS Louisiana SERS

Maine PERS

MERS of Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi PERS

Missouri Local Government ERS Missouri PSRS Montana PERA

disclosure to the following items: 1) Retirement allowance, 2) Final Average Compensation, 3) Service credit and 4) employment history. Only member address is considered confidential. Public record status is a function both of retirement system policy and statute. First, as a matter of policy, MERS treats all member and employer records confidentially. In other words, MERS does not volunteer any information about individuals and employers. Notwithstanding this policy of confidentiality, MERS is required by statute to disclose public records pursuant to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, 1976 PA 442, MCL 15.231 et seq. The Michigan FOIA is a pro-disclosure statute, with very limited exceptions, the discussion of which is beyond the scope of this response. However, with respect to individuals, MERS is generally required to disclose names, salary history, and benefit amounts, but not SSNs, addresses, telephone numbers, and medical information. Thus, when MERS receives a FOIA request, it is very often required to disclose information that it otherwise considers confidential under its privacy policy. The retirement systems of Minnesota have a provision in state statute that directs that regardless of the public status of information we maintain, we are not required to provide anything more about our membership than the name, benefit amount and benefit type of a benefit recipient. Mississippi statutes specifically limit the disclosure of information about pension plan participants. Language was added in 2008 to allow PERS to share information as authorized by regulations of the board (regulation attached). The intent is to allow PERS to share limited relevant information with an individuals current employer. Relevant code is Miss. Code 25-11-119. Administration of Article 3, which states in part: The system shall not disclose the name, address or contents of any individual member records without the prior written consent of the individual to whom the record pertains, except as authorized by regulations of the board. Pursuant to state law, upon written request we may provide information regarding name, position, amount of retirement allowance and length of credited service. Address & telephone number will not be provided. No information regarding our pension plan participants is public if the information can be identified with the individual. This is due to a statutory provision (169.020) that states that all individually identifiable information related to members, beneficiaries, retirees, and survivors is confidential. Per retirement system rules, member information is considered confidential. The New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS) has an administrative rule, Ret. 103.01(c), that allows the plan to release member or annuitant information to the same extent allowed by the state's Right-To-Know (RTK) law under NHRSA 91-A. Most external requests lately have sought lists linking annuitants by name with their respective benefit payments. For instance, earlier this year we received a media request for the top 500 annuitants linking their names with their annual annuity amounts. Based on various legal opinions over the years, including those from the state's AG office back to the mid-90's as well as external counsel within the past couple of years, we have not provided such annuitant-specific information for either annuity amounts or addresses. This decision is based at least in part on our reading of the NH RTK law that makes a material legal distinction regarding the release of a public employee's salary and the privacy rights of a retiree. Statute says Neither the retirement board nor the association shall allow public inspection of, or disclosure of, information from any member or retiree file unless a prior release and consent, in the form prescribed by the association, has been executed by the member or retiree; except that applicable coverage plans, amounts of retirement plan contributions made by members and affiliated employers, pension amounts paid, and the names and addresses of public employee retirement association members or retirees requested for election purposes by candidates for election to the retirement board may be produced or disclosed without release or consent. Per statute, only member name and salary are considered public information. All else is confidential.

New Hampshire RS

New Mexico PERA North Carolina

Ohio STRS

Ohio Police & Fire PF

Oklahoma PERS

Oregon PERS

Tennessee

Texas ERS

Texas TRS

Utah RS Virginia RS

In Ohio names and addresses of our participants are public record, but no financial or personal history information is public. All information contained in a members personal history record is protected and will not be released unless by written permission from the member. A members personal history record includes all information related to an OP&F member, including the name, address, record of contributions and any record identifying the members service credit or benefits received. An exception to the Ohio Public Records Act applies to member records (Ohio Revised Code Section 149.43(A)(1)(v). This provides that if any provision of Ohio law prohibits public disclosure of a certain type of record, a public office must not release it in response to a public records request. OP&Fs governing law contains such a provision. Ohio Revised Code Section 742.41 and Rule 742-7-02 of the Ohio Administrative Code prohibit OP&F from disclosing a members personal history record unless we receive the members written authorization. The statutory language is as follows: "Except for the member's name, age, amount of contributions paid in, benefits being paid, amount of credited service and any documents verifying credited service or benefits, all information, documents and copies thereof contained in a member's retirement file shall be given confidential treatment and shall not be made public by the System without the prior written consent of the member to which it pertains, but shall be subject to subpoena or court order." 74 Okla. Statutes 932. So name, benefit amount, service credit and written benefit estimates are all an open record. Oregon's Public Records law (ORS 192.502) has one specific provision on public pension plan participants: (12) Employee and retiree address, telephone number and other nonfinancial membership records and employee financial records maintained by the Public Employees Retirement System pursuant to ORS chapters 238 and 238A. All other information is conditionally exempt from disclosure under ORS 192.502(2), "Information of a personal nature such as but not limited to that kept in a personal, medical or similar file, if public disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy, unless the public interest by clear and convincing evidence requires disclosure in the particular instance." TN has a specific statute -TN Open Records Act- which dictates what information in state records is considered public information. (TCA 10-7-504(f)(1)). Specifically, the following items in the retirement system are not public info: phone numbers, bank information, addresses, and SSN. We will provide the following information: name, employer, salary (active), monthly benefit amount (retiree), service, date of retirement, etc. We will not calculate a future benefit, but will provide a copy of a benefit estimate if the member has previously requested such an estimate. Member information held by the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) such as names, addresses, benefit amounts, and salary information is confidential and not subject to the Public Information Act pursuant to Texas Government Code 815.503(a). It states Records of members, annuitants, retirees, beneficiaries, and alternate payees under retirement plans administered by the retirement system that are in the custody of the system or of an administering firm, carrier, or other governmental agency acting in cooperation with or on behalf of the retirement system are confidential and not subject to public disclosure, and the retirement system, administering firm, carrier, or governmental agency is not required to accept or comply with a request for a record or information about a record or to seek an opinion from the attorney general, because the records are exempt from the provisions of Chapter 552, except as otherwise provided by this section. Section 825.507(a) of the Texas Government Code provides that, with certain limited exceptions, records of a TRS participant "are confidential and not subject to public disclosure in a form that would identify an individual . . . except as otherwise provided by this section." This provision further provides: Because the records described by this subsection are exempt from the public access provisions of Chapter 552, the retirement system is not required to accept or comply with a request for a record or information about a record or to seek an opinion from the attorney general, except as otherwise provided by this section. Generally all information in possession of Utah Retirement Systems is considered non-public, as provided by statute. In Virginia the statutes consider retirement records for active, inactive, and retired members to be confidential personnel records. In

Wisconsin RS

fact the states electronic records law places an affirmative duty upon agencies like VRS to safeguard personnel records. While the FOIA law does allow Virginia citizens to obtain access to the salaries of all state and local employees paid $10,000 or more, VRS does not consider itself to be the custodian of those records. Instead we direct all FOIA requests for salary data to the employing entities. We are the custodian of creditable compensation records which are not necessarily the same as salary records. Accordingly, we decline to participate in such FOIA requests. Wisconsin state statute prohibits the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, the state agency responsible for administration of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), from disclosing personal information regarding WRS members and states that personal information in the records of the Department is not a public record. The exceptions to the statute are: a) the information is requested by the member or a duly authorized representative of the member, b) the information is required to be disclosed under a court order or c) the information is required to be disclosed for the proper administration of the Department or to assist in locating members the Department is otherwise unable to contact.