House Labor Wants Salary, Names To Remain Public

Chad Blair/Civil Beat

Siding with advocates of government transparency, a Hawaii state House committee says the names, titles and salaries for state and county workers should remain public information.

The House Labor and Public Employees Committee on Friday rejected language in a bill that called for making private the names and exact salaries but allowed disclosure of job titles and salary ranges.

The Honolulu Police Department and the state's largest labor union, the Hawaii Government Employees Association, support keeping names and salaries private, while several good-government advocates including Common Cause Hawaii want them to remain public.

Committee members, led by Chair Karl Rhoads, felt there was a compelling public interest in keeping the salary data public. They also didn't hear a single example of identity theft stemming from publication of the salary info — the primary rationale for the bill.

However, Rhoads also recommended new language in HB 1356, which was adopted by the committee, that will exclude from automatic disclosure a worker's education and training background, pervious work experience and first and last dates of employment — information that is widely available in many states.

Rhoads described that information as "pretty personal and probably not all that helpful for outside analysis of what government is doing."

HB 1356 passed unanimously with Rep. Joe Souiki voting "aye" with reservations ("I love the unions," he explained). It now heads to House Judiciary, which hasn't yet scheduled a hearing.

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