Summary of my requests for FY2015 AACPS employee compensation data
This is the third and final installment of my email correspondence with the AACPS Public Information Office regarding my Public Information Act requests for both FY2015 AACPS employee compensation data and the correspondence regarding the fulfillment of that request (links to the earlier two installments are provided below).
My third Public Information Act request for this information–dated December 10, 2015– provided the most useful information. Ultimately, I got most of what I requested. The biggest failure was access to an integrated file with both total salary and paycode data broken down by employee.
After my first Public Information request last August, I gave up requesting FY2013, Fy2014, and FY2015 data so I could compare the different years. I realized it just wasn’t realistic to expect AACPS to give this information to me in a way that would allow meaningful comparisons. Nevertheless, I was surprised by the Public Information Officer’s continued bluster in pretending he had given me what I requested for FY2015. The overall sense I got is that one of the delights he gets out of his job is finding some subtle way to incompletely fulfill requests for sensitive information while protesting a good faith response.
The reason no public officials request this type of nominally public compensation data, including school board members, county councilors, and members of the General Assembly, is that they cannot do so anonymously and fear the fallout from seeking such controversial information.
In the final analysis, AACPS could have easily fulfilled my request for FY2015 AACPS compensation data with less than an hour of effort. As is done for government employee compensation data in small towns in New England, this public information should have been publicly posted so no one should have had to risk intimidation and harassment, or, in the case of an elected official or political appointee, political retribution, for seeking this type of public and essential budget data. If public officials don’t want to make this type of information public–just like they refuse to make retirement benefits, such as accumulated sick leave, public–they should pass a law making it exempt from public disclosure.
As for accessing the internal AACPS email correspondence on this issue, I considered that an unrealistic, albeit perfectly legal, Public Information Act request. Not surprisingly, most of the essential communications that had to be involved in fulfilling my various Public Information Act requests for FY2015 compensation data didn’t show up in the response to my Public Information Act request for them. What I did eventually get was a list of at least some of the AACPS staff involved in fulfilling (or not fulfilling, as the case may be) the request.
Here is the list:
- Bob Mosier, Chief Communications Officer, AACPS,
- Florence Bozella, Executive Director of Human Resources, AACPS
- Kathleen Orndorf, Senior Manager of Records, Division of Human Resources
- Ulysses Keyes, Senior Systems Analyst, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
- Sandra Grzesik, Senior Programmer Analyst at Anne Arundel County Public Schools
- Michelle Cattaneo, Communications Office, Executive Administrative Secretary
The first two employees on this list make over $150,000/year, and the first five make over $100,000/year. In my judgment, an administrative secretary or intern should have been easily able to fulfill my request. Downloading an Excel spreadsheet from AACPS’s modern, multi-million dollar payroll system should have been a routine, low level task. When requesters anticipate that high level staff will needlessly be involved in fulfilling a request for controversial information, they are intimidated from requesting such data in the first place.
–J.H. (“Jim”) Snider, March 12, 2016
From: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2016 4:30 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Mosier:
You are a world class practitioner of BS. I suppose you should take some pride in that.
Sad to say that Maryland’s Public Information Act is structured to reward public information officers like yourself who, on behalf of their government agencies, devote far more time to playing games to deny rather than fulfill Public Information Act requests for sensitive information. Even Kevin Spacey would be impressed.
You undoubtedly deserve every nickel and more that AACPS pays you as its chief PR officer. I thank god that I don’t have to do the type of work expected of you.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse.info
From: Mosier, Bob [mailto:RMOSIER@AACPS.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2016 11:44 AM
To: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Snider:
It is most unfortunate that the litany of erroneous claims set forth in many of your pieces of correspondence necessitates that the Communications Office expend otherwise unnecessary time and effort to set the record straight. Nevertheless, in response to the assertion in your March 8, 2016, that this office has “repeatedly” failed to comply with your Maryland Public Information Act request, I repeat unequivocally that you have been provided with all of the data that falls within the scope of your request, that exists, and that is disclosable.
That data you have been provided may not be in the customized form you requested, but I would remind you that the Act does not require an agency to create custom reports to fulfill a request.
Despite our fulfillment of your requests, you choose to continue to erroneously and disrespectfully assail the character and professionalism of Anne Arundel County Public Schools personnel who have, with no charge to you in most cases, put in hours of labor exponentially beyond those allocated free under the Act. You choose this path despite the fact that you have neither met nor know anything about the vast majority of those you castigate.
Mr. Snider, our office aims to treat every single person with whom we interact with dignity and respect. We try our very hardest to supply accurate and up-to-date information to a multitude of people on a weekly basis. Quite frankly, I am incredibly proud of the work we do and the way in which we do it. We can agree to disagree on any number of subjects, but your continued character assassinations are uncalled for and unwelcome.
Sincerely,
Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Fax: 410-222-5628
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
From: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2016 4:44 PM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Mosier:
Repeatedly sending me the same file that did not comply with my December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request (or my earlier Public Information Act requests) does not constitute compliance.
I continue to be puzzled by how it is possible that five AACPS employees earning more than $100,000/year (you, Florie Bozzella, Ulysses Keyes, Kathy Orndorf, Sandra Grzesik) plus your assistant (Michelle Cattaneo) should have such trouble reading and complying with a simple and crystal clear English language request for AACPS compensation data.
I am also puzzled how the email record to the six individuals involved with fulfilling my Public Information Act requests for FY2015 AACPS compensation data could be so sparse. It would appear that for my various Public Information Act requests beginning last summer you made heavy reliance on the telephone or face-to-face communications to convey my requests and that Ms. Orndorf used similarly inefficient technology (surprising for highly paid tech staffers) to coordinate with those she assigned to fulfill my various Public Information Act requests for the compensation data. No wonder Ms. Orndoff and the other AACPS staff could not follow the simplest of instructions. If I had to write down the names of dozens of obscure compensation field names spoken to me, I’d make mistakes, too!
You may be pleased to hear that I am giving up my request. You won!
Thank you for the limited and occasionally incorrect information you were able to provide.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse.info
From: Mosier, Bob [mailto:RMOSIER@AACPS.org]
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2016 2:09 PM
To: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
March 8, 2016
Dear Mr. Snider:
This communication is in response to your March 1, 2016, request (below) under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq.
The first portion of your request is an exact duplicate of your December 10, 2015, request also made under the Act. Despite this fact, I have attached a document responsive to your request to this email.
A document responsive to the second portion of your request is also attached to this email.
Pursuant to GPA §4-362, in the event you disagree with any determination regarding this Maryland Public Information Act request, you may seek judicial review by filing a complaint with the Circuit Court in Anne Arundel County.
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
Fax: 410-222-5628
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
From: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 4:29 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 FY2015 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 FY2015 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.
Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I also request a copy of the AACPS Human Resources correspondence mentioned in the correspondence dated October 15, 2015, 5:33 PM, between you and Senior Manager Kathleen Orndoff.
Please charge me no more than the amount you have charged the Capital or individual AACPS Board of Education members for copying similar records and correcting mistakes made by AACPS.
Please send me the requested files 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 response within the 10 calendar days now required by the Public Information Act would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse.info
From: Mosier, Bob [mailto:RMOSIER@AACPS.org]
Sent: Monday, February 29, 2016 3:07 PM
To: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
February 29, 2016
Dear Mr. Snider:
This correspondence is in response to your February 1, 2016, request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking “a copy of all AACPS Human Resources correspondence with regard to fulfilling my 1) August 7, 2015 Public Information Act request for AACPS FY2015 compensation data, 2) September 28, 2015 Public Information Act request for AACPS FY2015 compensation data, and 3) December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request for AACPS FY2015 compensation data” and your clarifying email of February 2, 2016, in which you stated “I look forward to your good faith effort to fulfill the Public Information Act request submitted to your office yesterday concerning your correspondence with HR to fulfill my requests for AACPS compensation data.”
Documents responsive to your request are attached to this correspondence. In fulfilling this request, Anne Arundel County Public Schools exercised its obligation to review documents to determine if there are exceptions to disclosure. In cases where that review resulted in intra-agency, pre-decisional communications, those communications have been withheld as allowable under § 4-344. In addition, any communications that were considered non-disclosable under attorney-client privilege were also withheld.
Pursuant to GPA §4-362, in the event you disagree with any determination regarding this Maryland Public Information Act request, you may seek judicial review by filing a complaint with the Circuit Court in Anne Arundel County.
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
Fax: 410-222-5628
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
From: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2016 11:47 AM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Mosier:
Yours is a clever response to my December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request; you are a true master at obfuscation and delay. I’ve already explained in detail what was materially incomplete in your responses to my August 7, 2015, September 28, 2015, and December 10, 2015 Public Information Act requests, and I do not want to repeat myself in detail yet again.
But briefly: in one response for FY2015 compensation you gave me the total salary field without the detailed pay fields, and in another response for FY2015 compensation you gave me the detailed pay fields without the total salary field. As you know also, the pay fields don’t add up to the total salary fields because they reflect different accounting principles. There were discrepancies in the first two responses, such as between the FTE fields that are needed to do compensation arithmetic. Even within a spreadsheet the nature of the data is ambiguous, such as does the FTE information for the October 28, 2015 spreadsheet you resent me apply to FY2013, FY2014, or FY2015. I repeatedly asked you for the answer to that question and never got it. My December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request unambiguously stipulated that the requested compensation data for FY2015, notably pay fields and total salary, be provided in one integrated file. You did not provide that information.
A good faith response to my Public Information Act requests for FY2015 AACPS compensation data? We will just have to agree to disagree on the answer to that question.
You have once again omitted material information in fulfilling my December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request for FY2015 compensation data just like you did with the two earlier requests for FY2015 compensation data. Please fulfill my request.
Thank you for not instigating another harassment campaign against me and my family—every AACPS parent’s worst nightmare—in response to my request for AACPS employee compensation data.
Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request a copy of all AACPS Human Resources correspondence with regard to fulfilling my 1) August 7, 2015 Public Information Act request for AACPS FY2015 compensation data, 2) September 28, 2015 Public Information Act request for AACPS FY2015 compensation data, and 3) December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request for AACPS FY2015 compensation data.
Please send me the requested correspondence 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.
Your response within the 10 calendar days now required by the Public Information Act would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse.info
From: Mosier, Bob [mailto:RMOSIER@AACPS.org]
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2016 1:01 PM
To: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
January 30, 2016
Dear Mr. Snider:
This email is in response to your communication subsequent to my office’s fulfillment of your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking information regarding Anne Arundel County Public Schools employees.
I continue to be more than puzzled by your erroneous recollection and recounting of the factual matters contained in our many communications. Most recently, your January 16, 2016, email asserts that “we have both agreed” that your December 10, 2015, request was “only partially fulfilled.” I do not agree.
The information you now claim not to have been provided – total salary information for employees – was, in fact, provided to you in detail in the October 28, 2015, to one of your earlier requests (as you are well aware, you have filed, rescinded, and refiled multiple requests on this subject matter). As you may no longer have this document, I have attached it to this email. The information referenced here can be found in Column S.
As it relates to the Pay Category field, you will find it on Column P of the January 5, 2016, response to your request.
Pursuant to GPA §4-362, in the event you disagree with any determination regarding this Maryland Public Information Act request you may seek judicial review by filing a complaint with the Circuit Court in Anne Arundel County.
Sincerely,
Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Fax: 410-222-5628
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
From: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 10:56 AM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request
Dear Mr. Mosier:
Please respond to my January 22 email copied below.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse.info
From: ‘J.H. (“Jim”) Snider’
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 11:18 AM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Reques
Dear Mr. Mosier:
It has now been more than six weeks since my December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request to your office, which we have both agreed was only partially fulfilled. The last time we spoke you said the AACPS HR Department was reviewing the omissions. Please report to me on how HR responded and what your intentions are with regard to complying with my December 10, 2015 Public Information Act request.
Thanks in advance for your prompt reply to this query.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse.info
